FINITEELEMENTMODELLINGOFTUBULARBOLTEDCONNECTIONOFALATTICEWINDTOWERFORFATIGUEASSESSMENT

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FINITE ELEMENT MODELLING OF TUBULAR BOLTED CONNECTION OF A

LATTICE WIND TOWER FOR FATIGUE ASSESSMENT
Thesis · February 2016

DOI: 10.13140/RG.2.1.4390.7608
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Ferhan
Öztürk
FINITE ELEMENT MODELLING OF
FINITE ELEMENT MODELLING OF TUBULAR BOLTED CONNECTION OF A LATTICE WIND TOWER FOR FATIGUE ASSESSMENT
TUBULAR BOLTED CONNECTION
OF A LATTICE WIND TOWER FOR
FATIGUE ASSESSMENT
Ferhan Öztürk
Supervisors: Professor Carlos Rebelo

Dr. José Correia
Thesis Submitted in partial fulfillment of requirements for the degree of Master of

Science in Construction of Steel and Composite Structures
European Erasmus Mundus Master
Sustainable Constructions under natural hazards and catastrophic events
University of Coimbra
FCTUC
2016
05.02.2016
FINITE ELEMENT MODELLING OF
TUBULAR BOLTED CONNECTION OF
A LATTICE WIND TOWER FOR
FATIGUE ASSESSMENT
Author: Ferhan Öztürk
Supervisors: Professor Carlos Rebelo

Dr. José Correia
University: University of Coimbra
University: University of Coimbra
Date: 05.02.2016
ACKNOWLEDGEMENT
I would like to give my special thanks to professor Carlos Rebelo and doctor José António
Correia for their valuabe input and constructive comments in this thesis.
Secondly, I owe a debt of gratitute to the greatest man of past century, Mustafa Kemal
Atatürk whose light still shines upon our path to see the importance of science and purpose of
being a human. I also would like to express my gratitude to professor Oktay Sinanoğlu whose
books taught me the formula of “Science+Heart” to become a true scientist.
Last but not the least, I heartfully thank to my friends, family and loved ones which constitude
the most important part of my life.
ACKNOWLEDGEMENT iii
ABSTRACT
One of the biggest challenges in front of the growing wind energy industry is to build higher
towers for wind energy converters. In order to deal with such a problem a new hybrid tower,
comprising a steel lattice lower part and a steel tubular upper part solution was proposed. The
solution is targeted at tall onshore applications which are more effective in energy generation
in situations where wind shear profile is clearly benefiting higher turbines, for example near
forests. As part of this project, this thesis is focused on the fatigue assessment of tubular
bolted connection of lattice tower.
In first chapter, commercial towers for wind energy converters are briefly introduced, namely,
concrete towers, welded steel shell towers, concrete/steel hybrid towers, lattice towers and
hybrid lattice-tubular towers.
In the second chapter, developments in fatigue analysis during the last decades and fatigue life
prediction methods are given. Moreover, special emphasis is given to multiaxial fatigue life
criteria which was used in fatigue life calculation of the connection used in this thesis.
In the third chapter, numerical finite element modelling steps for stiffness calculation, global
beam element model, and local connection model are given in detail. Additionally, finite
element stress-strain results and fatigue life calculations using these results are also explained.
In the last chapter, conclusions are drawn and further possible improvements of this work is
suggested.
KEY WORDS
Lattice tower, tubular bolted connection, finite element analysis, multiaxial fatigue criteria,
fatigue assessment
ABSTRACT v
TABLE OF CONTENTS
ACKNOWLEDGEMENT .........................................................................................................iii
ABSTRACT ............................................................................................................................... v
TABLE OF CONTENTS .................................................................................................. vii-viii
FIGURE INDEX ................................................................................................................... x-xi
TABLE INDEX .......................................................................................................................xiii
NOTATIONS .................................................................................................................... xv-xvi
1 INTRODUCTION ................................................................................................................ 1
1.1 Motivation ...................................................................................................................... 1
1.2 Objectives ....................................................................................................................... 2
1.3 Organisation of the thesis ............................................................................................... 2
1.4 Towers used for wind energy converters ........................................................................ 3
1.4.1 Type of towers for wind energy converters ................................................................. 3
1.4.1.1 Concrete towers ........................................................................................................ 4
1.4.1.2 Welded steel shell towers ......................................................................................... 5
1.4.1.3 Concrete/Steel hybrid tower ..................................................................................... 6
1.4.1.4 Lattice tower ............................................................................................................. 7
1.4.1.5 Hybrid lattice-tubular towers .................................................................................... 8
2 STATE OF THE ART IN FATIGUE................................................................................. 10
2.1 History of fatigue .......................................................................................................... 10
2.2 Nature of fatigue .......................................................................................................... 12
2.3 Factors influencing fatigue life ..................................................................................... 13
2.4 Fatigue crack initiation ................................................................................................. 14
2.5 Fatigue growth .............................................................................................................. 15
2.6 Fatigue life prediction methods .................................................................................... 16
2.6.1 Stress-life approach ................................................................................................... 17
2.6.1.1 S-N curves .............................................................................................................. 17
2.6.1.2 Mean stress effect ................................................................................................... 19
2.1.1.1 Stress concentrations .............................................................................................. 20
TABLE OF CONTENTS vii

2.1.2 Local approaches........................................................................................................20

2.1.2.1 Stress-based method ................................................................................................21
2.1.1.1 Strain based approach .............................................................................................22
2.1.2 Multiaxial fatigue criteria...........................................................................................25
2.1.2.1 Stress-based fatigue criteria ....................................................................................26
2.1.2.2 Strain-based type criteria ........................................................................................27
2.1.2.3 Energy-based criteria ..............................................................................................29
2.1.2.4 Nominal stress approach .........................................................................................32
2.1.2.5 Fracture mechanics criteria .....................................................................................33
3 PROPOSED PROCEDURE FOR FATIGUE LIFE ESTIMATION OF HALF-PIPES
BOLTED CONNECTION ..................................................................................................35
4 EXPERIMENTAL FATIGUE DATA OF THE S355 MILD STEEL ...............................37
5 NUMERICAL MODELLING ............................................................................................40
3.1 Numerical modelling for fatigue assessment ................................................................40
3.2 Simple model to define bolt pre-loading.......................................................................41
3.3 Stiffness model ..............................................................................................................41
3.4 Approach to obtain stiffness of the joint .......................................................................42
3.5 Global modelling with beam elements to obtain realistic member forces ....................44
3.5.1 A simple model for the verification of connector element ........................................44
3.5.2 Global model with beam elements .............................................................................45
3.6 Application of obtained member forces to joint model ................................................47
3.6.1 Geometric properties of the model.............................................................................47
3.6.2 Material, element type and mesh ...............................................................................49
3.6.3 Interaction definitions ................................................................................................52
3.6.4 Boundary conditions ..................................................................................................52
3.7 Numerical results ..........................................................................................................53
6 CONCLUSIONS AND FUTURE WORK .........................................................................61
7 REFERENCES....................................................................................................................63
viii TABLE OF CONTENTS

FIGURE INDEX
Figure 1. Summary of specific investment cost for 3 and 5 MW wind turbines furnished
with slip formed concrete towers ............................................................................................. 4
Figure 2. Steel shell tower in two sections and ring flange ...................................................... 5
Figure 3. Transportation of steel tubular tower segments ........................................................ 6
Figure 4. Concrete-steel hybrid tower. .................................................................................... 6
Figure 5. Steel lattice tower ..................................................................................................... 7
Figure 6. Hybrid lattice-tubular tower. .................................................................................... 8
Figure 7. Tower costs for the alternative designs. Turbine power 3 MW, hub height 125 m ... 9
Figure 8. Fatigue life stages [6]. ............................................................................................ 13
Figure 9. Crack occurrence in cyclic loading [5]. .................................................................. 15
Figure 10. Fatigue crack growth [6]. ..................................................................................... 16
Figure 11. Typical S-N curve of a medium-strength steel. .................................................... 18
Figure 12. Stress definitions. ................................................................................................. 19
Figure 13. Strain-life curves showing total, elastic, and plastic strain components. .............. 23
Figure 14. Mean stress relaxation under strain-controlled cycling with a mean strain [3]. .... 24
Figure 15. Crack growth: (a) tensile crack growth according to SWT criterion and (b) effect
of normal stress on shear crack growth according to FS criterion. ........................................ 29
Figure 16. Fatigue crack propagation regimes [6]. ................................................................ 33
Figure 17. Schematic explanation of fatigue analysis procedure. .......................................... 36
Figure 18. Strain‐life curves for the S355 steel, Rε=‐1. ......................................................... 38
Figure 19. Experimental fatigue crack propagation data of the S355 steel for distinct stress
ratios: experimental results [41,42] ......................................................................................... 39
Figure 20. Preload validation (356.1 kN). ............................................................................. 41
Figure 21. Stiffness model. .................................................................................................... 42
Figure 22. Stiffness calculation. ............................................................................................ 43
Figure 23. Elastic joint stiffness. ........................................................................................... 43
Figure 24. Connector element used for stiffness. ................................................................... 44
Figure 25. Global model. ....................................................................................................... 45
Figure 26. Max. and min. axial forces in members. ............................................................... 47
FIGURE INDEX x
Figure 27. 3D and cross-section views of the bolted joint. .................................................... 48

Figure 28. S355 material behaviour used in this study [12]. .................................................. 49
Figure 29. Number of elements used around bolt holes. ........................................................ 50
Figure 30. Number of elements used around bolt holes and stress distribution after
preloading .............................................................................................................................. 51
Figure 31. Mesh structure of some members ......................................................................... 51
Figure 32. Normal stress due to bolt preloading; (a) by distance, (b) by contour. ................. 54
Figure 33. Von-misses stress distribution due to external loading. ........................................ 55
Figure 34. Maximum principal stress location. ...................................................................... 55
Figure 35. SWT resultant variation to bolt load ..................................................................... 56
Figure 36. SWT resultant fatigue life curve for S355 unnotched specimen ........................... 56
Figure 37. Remote stress-local stress (5K) variation at minimum fatigue life location. ......... 57
Figure 38. SWT parameter variation ..................................................................................... 58
Figure 39. Shows stress gradient around bolt hole. ............................................................... 58
Figure 40. Shows stress gradient around bolt hole. ............................................................... 59
Figure 41. Integration of stress around bolt hole ................................................................... 59
Figure 42. Gap size change between bolt and hole. ................................................................ 60
xi FIGURE INDEX
TABLE INDEX
Table 1. Monotonic and cyclic elastoplastic properties of the S355 mid steel.. ........................ 37
Table 2. Morrow constants of the S355 mid steel. ..................................................................... 38
Table 3. Dimensions of structural members in lattice tower ...................................................... 45
Table 4. Damage equivalent fatigue loads applied in global beam model ................................. 46
Table 5. Member forces obtained in global analysis .................................................................. 46
Table 6. Cross-section properties of members ........................................................................... 48
Table 7. Analyses performed for mesh convergence study ........................................................ 50
Table 8. Comparison between penalty and augmented Lagrange formulations......................... 52
Table 9. Maximum stress, strains and SWT parameters in members......................................... 53
TABLE INDEX xiii

NOTATIONS
LATIN
a Crack length
b Fatigue strength exponent
c Fatigue ductility exponent
da/dN Fatigue crack growth rate
D Total damage
E Modulus of elasticity
fy Higher yield stress
fu Ultimate tensile strength
H(x) Heaviside function
J2,a Amplitude of second invariant of deviatoric stress tensor
K Stress intensity factor
K’ Cyclic strength coefficient
Kf Fatigue notch factor
Kt Total tress concentration factor
n Strain hardening exponent
n’ Cyclic strain-hardening exponent
N Number of cycles (fatigue life)
Nf Number of cycles to failure
Ni Number of cycles in crack initiation; Number of cycles of the specimen i
NT Total number of cycles
2Nf Reversals to failure
2Nt Transition Number of reversals
R Stress ratio
Sk Material dependant constant
SWT Smith, Watson and Topper fatigue damage parameter
ΔKeq Equivalent stress intensity range
ΔKI Range of stress intensity factor
ΔW Total strain energy range
NOTATIONS xv
ΔWE+ Elastic strain energy range associated with the tensile stress
ΔWP Plastic strain energy density
ΔWt Elastic tensile strain energy density
GREEK
σH,max Maximum value of the hydrostatic stress
τa Alternating shear stress
γmax Maximum shear strain
ε1 First principal strain
ε3 Third principal strains
θ1 Indicator of loading a cycle
θ2 Indicator of unloading of a cycle
𝜎𝑛𝑚𝑎𝑥 Maximum normal stress
𝜈̅ Poisson’s ratio
∆γ Range of shear strain
∆τ Range of shear stress
∆εn Normal strain range
∆σn Normal stress range
𝜌̅ Multiaxial constraint ratio
ACRONYMS
DIC Digital Image Correlation
EC3 Eurocode 3
FS Fatemi-Socie
JV Jahed-Varvani
KBM Kandil, Brown and Miller
SWT Smith, Watson and Topper
xvi NOTATIONS
1. INTRODUCTION
The utilisation of wind energy is not a new technology but draws on the rediscovery of a long
tradition of wind power technology. It is no longer possible now to tell from the remainders of
historical "wind power plants" just how important a role wind power played in the past. The
triumphal spread of the cheap coal and oil fuels and of easy energy distribution in the form of
electricity was so complete that the losers, windmills and wind wheels, could only survive in
economic niches of little importance. Today, while energy production based on the burning of
coal and oil or on the splitting of the uranium atom is meeting with increasing resistance,
regardless of the various reasons, the re-emergence of wind power is an almost inevitable
consequence. In today’s world alternative energy resources are becoming increasingly more
important considering the limited fossil fuel resources and the wild competition to obtain
them [1].
The process of commercialising and monopolisation of wind turbines has driven governments
and big companies to build bigger wind turbines which also helps other sectors to increase
their productions. However, even though having the technology to build bigger parts or
segments of towers is not enough to overcome some other problems to build towers, such as
transportation and lifting. Consequently, using smaller parts that can be assembled on site to
build towers such as lattice towers was considered to be an option to avoid such problems. To
have an opportunity to build higher lattice towers seems to be a good solution, yet the need to
improve any invention persists. As well as the invention of different lattice towers, some
inherent weaknesses of any structure like fatigue is still of a concern for such inventions.
1.1 Motivation
The need for obtaining higher and stable wind flow to generate more electricity requires
higher wind towers. As one of the most cost effective solutions among all is lattice towers,
this study is focused on assessing an important aspect, fatigue life, of a newly proposed bolted
connection of tubular cross section of an octagonal lattice tower.
INTRODUCTION 1
1.2 Objectives
Recently, a steel hybrid solution for onshore wind turbine towers using a lattice structure for
the lower portion of the tower and a tubular upper portion was proposed. This solution
targeted tall onshore applications supporting multi megawatt wind turbines. Previous
developments focused on conceptual design and structural predesign of one case study based
on equivalent load tables and using S355 steel grade: hub height 150 meters (40 meters lattice
part, 110 meters tubular part) supporting a 5 MW wind turbine. The aim of this thesis can be
divided into three main categories. First, to develop a finite element (FE) model of a steel
half-pipes bolted connection for stiffness assessment, second application of obtained stiffness
of the bolted joint to a global beam element model to obtain a more realistic member forces
compared to a pinned connection and for the last step, to apply member forces obtained in the
global analysis to local FE model in order to obtain stresses and strains to be used in a
multiaxial fatigue assessment with a local approach.
1.3 Organisation of the Thesis
The thesis begins with an introduction in which the motivation, objectives and structure of the
thesis and brief information about types of towers used for wind energy converters are
presented.
The introduction is followed by a literature review on fatigue that is composed of the

following topics: a historic perspective on fatigue, stages of fatigue damage, and review of the
main factors influencing fatigue damage, distinct approaches to fatigue modelling including
global S-N approaches, local approaches and Fracture Mechanics based approaches.
In third chapter, numerical modelling details of tubular bolted connection of the lattice tower
which includes stiffness calculation of the joint, general beam analysis of the lattice tower and
local connection model and results are presented.
In the fourth and the final chapter, conclusions are drawn and further possible improvements
are suggested.
1.4 Towers Used for Wind Energy Converters

The use of wind energy to generate electricity is now well accepted with a large industry
manufacturing and installing tens of GWs of new capacity each year. Although there are
exciting new developments, particularly in very large wind turbines, and many challenges
remain, there is a considerable body of established knowledge concerning the science and
2 INTRODUCTION
technology of wind turbines. The overwhelming majority of wind turbines presently in use are
horizontal axis connected to a large electricity network [2].
Supporting structures for wind turbines are often tubular structures made of traditional
structural materials, namely, steel and concrete. There is also hybrid concrete/steel wind
turbine towers in which combination of concrete and steel tubes are used in the lower and
upper part respectively. Most commonly pre-fabricated concrete segments and steel tubes
with maximum diameter of about 4 m are transported by the truck to the site. Increasing
requirements in efficiency and competiveness of wind turbines in generation of electrical
energy lead to larger swept area, meaning the longer rotor blades, and higher hub height. Such
developments, towers higher than 100 m were favourable for development of steel lattice
towers [2].
1.4.1 Type of Towers for Wind Energy Converters
A structural tower or some other support structure is needed to raise the nacelle assembly that
could weigh several cubic tonnes up into the air, away from the slower and more turbulent
winds near the ground. It elevates the rotor to a height where the wind velocity is significantly
larger and less perturbed than near the ground level. Some towers can reach 135 m in height
necessitating that their structures are capable of withstanding significant loads due to gravity,
rotation and wind thrust loads [2].
The tower accounts for approximately 20% of the total manufacturing cost for a wind turbine
[3]. For turbines with higher rated power capacity, the percentage could be even increasing.
Reduction of cost could be made through various methods: optimization of structural form
can save material cost if sufficient structural strength is maintained or manufacturing cost can
be lowered by means of mass production. The latter is in fact the reason why large scale wind
farm development is becoming the interests of many.
As for optimization of structural form, the 20% or even higher cost of the tower could be
possibly reduced if for instance lattice structure is applied as support structure for wind
turbine. Lattice structure possesses advantages in that it generally requires less material; the
wave load impact in the offshore environment is also reduced due to the reduced impacted
area compared with monopile structure. On the other hand, transportation of lattice structure
is also much more convenient when road transportation capacity of 4-6m is limited if a larger
dimension of monopile is required for a larger scale wind turbine.
1.4.1.1 Concrete Towers
In a concrete tower the concrete proper only withstands pressure. The ability to absorb tension
is provided primarily by pretensioned tendons, located in ducts in the concrete or
internal/external of the concrete walls. Making them internal or external enables easy
inspection. There are also traditional untensioned reinforcement bars cast into the concrete
shell, necessary to provide the compressive strength.
INTRODUCTION 3
A concrete tower is clearly dimensioned by the extreme load case, since it has large margins
towards fatigue. It is assumed that the concrete is pretensioned by the tendons to 20 MPa. In
the extreme load case the pressure side is offloaded to close to zero whereas the tension on the
other side is doubled. By increasing the thickness of the concrete cover it may be possible to
increase the lifetime to e.g. 50 years. One concrete tower may then serve for two generations
of machineries, with obvious economical savings (Figure 1). Compared to steel towers,
concrete towers are much heavier and takes longer time to erect. On the other hand, the
concrete or the concrete elements, if made small enough, are not subject to transportation
restrictions, as for the case with welded steel towers with large base diameters.
Regardless if the tower is slip formed or assembled from precast elements, it is advantageous
to install the post-stressing tendons from below, thus not needing to lift the heavy rolls of
tendons to the tower top. Then it is however necessary to furnish the foundation with a cellar
[2].
800
700
Investment €/MWh/yr
600
500
400
300
3
200 MW
100
0
0 50 100 150 200
Hub heigth [m]
Figure 1. Summary of specific investment cost for 3 and 5 MW wind turbines furnished
with slip formed concrete towers.
1.4.1.2 Welded Steel Shell Towers
The welded steel shell tower today dominates the wind turbine market. It consists of cylinders
made of steel plate bent to a circular shape and welded longitudinally (Figure 2). Transversal
welds connect several such cylinders to form a tower section. Each section ends with a steel
flange in each end. The sections are bolted to each other. The bottom flange is connected to
the foundation and the top one to the nacelle.
4 INTRODUCTION
A tower is primarily dimensioned against tension and buckling in the extreme load cases.
Ideally the margin should be the same for both criteria, since increasing the diameter, with a
corresponding reduction of plate thickness, increases the tension strength but reduces the
buckling margin. Finally the tower has to be checked against fatigue. According to BSK and
Eurocode connecting welds (transversal and longitudinal) and dimension changes (flanges)
affects the strength in a negative way. Thus it is the welds and the geometry that primarily
determine the fatigue strength rather than the quality of the steel. Therefore wind turbine
towers mostly use ordinary qualities of steel. In this report use of S355J2G3 (earlier known as
SS2134, tensile yield limit 355 MPa) is assumed for both the welded and friction joint towers
[2].
In the dimensioning load case, the tower is affected by the thrust from the rotor. This thrust
will create a bending moment, which increases with the distance from the turbine shaft, i.e.
inversely proportional to the height above the ground. To cope with this increasing bending
moment it is favourable to make the tower conical in shape, to the limit of buckling. However,
land transportation even with a special permit is not possible for diameters exceeding 4,5 m in
many countries (Figure 3).
Figure 2. Steel shell tower in two sections and ring flange.
Ring flange connections result in high fabrication cost and long delivery times. Another
disadvantage of such connections is their low fatigue resistance which is approximately 50
MPa.
INTRODUCTION 5
Figure 3. Transportation of steel tubular tower segments.
1.4.1.3 Concrete/Steel Hybrid Tower
The idea behind building a hybrid concrete/steel tower (Figure 4) is to use concrete in the
wide lower part and steel in the upper part, where a conventional welded steel shell tower
section may be designed without any risk of conflict with the transportation limitations. In
reality it also makes it easier to design the concrete part and to get the eigen-frequencies right
[2].
Figure 4. Concrete-steel hybrid tower.
1.4.1.4 Lattice Tower
Lattice tower applied as wind turbine support structure does not come until recently. In fact,
during the earliest period of onshore wind turbine development, lattice tower was already
6 INTRODUCTION
adopted. This type of structure is simple to construct and stiff in function. A lot of such
structures can be seen on the early onshore wind turbines (Figure 5).
As the size of wind turbine increased, lattice tower was gradually displaced by tubular tower.
In the early experimental stage of wind energy and especially when the size of wind turbine
was still moderate, the emphasis was not placed on cost reduction of the tower, which is why
the tubular tower was very widely and popularly used. However, as commercialization of
wind energy is urged and the size of wind turbine grows, after cost reduction measurements
on mechanical components like the gearbox and generator are achieved, cost minimization
associated with the turbine support structure is again attracting interests and this is why these
years the lattice structure is receiving more and more attentions, especially on large scale
offshore wind turbines [2].
Figure 5. Steel lattice tower.
The visual qualities are controversial, especially due to the resemblance to towers for high-
voltage power lines, generally claimed to be ugly. An open design, like a lattice tower, is
more prone to icing than a tubular tower. The possible impact on the dynamic properties may
be the most severe consequence, which may endanger the wind turbine in an extreme case. It
may also be a problem for maintenance personnel, even if their elevator runs on heated rails.
Increased risk of falling ice is also another important danger for such towers.
INTRODUCTION 7
1.4.1.5 Hybrid Lattice-Tubular Towers
Use of hybrid towers is possible to achieve greater heights for the turbine shaft. This type of
towers is composed of 3 parts, the lower lattice part fixed to the foundation and assembled at
the installation site, a piece of tubular tower consisting of several parts bolted together, as
happens in most tubular towers, and a transition piece which ensures the connection and
transmission of efforts between the two main parts.
A tower of this kind was installed at the wind farm in Gujarat, India some years ago (Figure
6). It is expected that this new type of towers produces about 10 to 12% more energy, because
gains against the normal towers more than 40 meters in total height, with a combined height
of 120 meters against the 80 meters of most tubular towers, therefore an ideal bet for low
wind areas, due to its superior performance, with a potential to be installed in all parts of the
world, without having to look for places where the wind speed is high. These towers can be
climbed from the inside, and have platforms inside the tubular part for maintenance and repair
work, but also to maintain all the equipment necessary for its operation.
Figure 6. Hybrid lattice-tubular tower.
Different types of towers for wind energy converters are given above. A cost comparison for
currently existing tower types are also given in Figure 7 below [2].
8 INTRODUCTION
Figure 7. Tower costs for the alternative designs. Turbine power 3 MW, hub height 125 m.
INTRODUCTION 9
10 INTRODUCTION
2. State of the Art in Fatigue
2.1 History of Fatigue
Fatigue failures in metallic structures are a well-known phenomenon which has caused many
injuries and much financial loss. On the other hand, compared to very large number of
thriving mechanical structure and component design, mechanical failures are of little
consequence. Fatigue was not noticed in 19th century because damage could not be seen
before failures occurred unexpectedly. Later in 20th century, it has been experienced that
repetitive loads can initiate a fatigue mechanism in the material leading to nucleation of a
microcrack, crack growth and finally to a complete failure of structure. Such failures were
first observed in 19th century and started to be investigated. One of the most important
research work on fatigue has been carried out by August Wöhler. He realized that a relatively
low force compared to static strength of the structure can cause failure if repeatedly applied.
Using stress versus life diagrams (S-N), he showed with higher stress amplitudes fatigue life
decreased and below a certain stress amplitude test specimens did not fail. He also realized
that stress range is more important than maximum stress [3].
During the 1870s and 1890s additional researchers substantiated and expanded Wohler's
classical work Gerber and others investigated the influence of mean stress, and Goodman
proposed a simplified theory concerning mean stress. Their names are still associated with
diagrams involving alternating and mean stresses. Bauschinger in 1886 showed that the yield
strength in tension or compression was reduced after applying a load of the opposite sign that
caused inelastic deformation. This was the first indication that a single reversal of inelastic
strain could change the stress-strain behaviour of metals. It was the forerunner of
understanding cyclic softening and hardening of metals.
In the early 1900s Ewing and Humfrey used the optical microscope to pursue the study of
fatigue mechanisms. Localized slip and slip band leading to the formation of microcracks
were observed. Basquin in 1910 showed that alternating stress versus number of cycles to
failure(S-N) in the finite life region could be represented as a log-log linear relationship. His
equation, plus modifications by others, are currently used to represent finite life fatigue
behaviour. In the 1920s, Gough and associates contributed greatly to the understanding of
fatigue mechanisms. They also showed the combined effects of bending and torsion
(multiaxial fatigue). Gough published a comprehensive book on fatigue of metals in 1924.
Mooree and Kommersf published the first comprehensive American book on fatigue of metals
in 1927. In 1920 Griffiths published the results of his theoretical calculations and experiments
on brittle fracture using glass. He found that the strength of glass depended on the size of
microscopic cracks. With this classical pioneering work on the importance of cracks, Griffith
developed the basis for fracture mechanics. He thus became the "early father" of fracture
STATE OF THE ART IN FATIGUE 11

mechanics. In 1924, Palmgren developed a linear cumulative damage model for variable
amplitude loading and established the use of the B10 fatigue life based upon statistical scatter
for ball bearing design. McAdam in the 1920s performed extensive corrosion fatigue studies
in which he showed significant degradation of fatigue resistance in various water solutions.
This degradation was more pronounced in higher-strength steels. In 1930 Haighh presented a
rational explanation of the difference in the response of high tensile strength steel and of mild
steel to fatigue when notches are present. He used the concepts of notch strain analysis and
residual stresses, which were more fully developed later by others [3].
During the 1930s, an important practical advance was achieved by the introduction of shot-
peening in the automobile industry. Fatigue failures of springs and axles, which had been
common, thereafter became rare. Ahnen; correctly explained the spectacular improvements by
compressive residual stresses produced in the surface layers of peened parts, and promoted
the use of peening and other processes that produce beneficial residual stresses. Horger
showed that surface rolling could prevent the growth of cracks. In 1937 Neuber introduced
stress gradient effects at notches and the elementary block concept, which states that the
average stress over a small volume at the root of the notch is more important than the peak
stress at the notch. In 1939, Gassner emphasized the importance of variable .amplitude testing
and promoted the use of an eight-step block loading spectrum for simulated testing. Block
testing was prominent until closed-loop electrohydraulic test systems became available in the
late 1950s and early 1960s [3].
In 1945, Miner formulated a linear cumulative fatigue damage criterion suggested by

Pahngren in 1924. This criterion is now recognized as the Palmgren-Miner linear damage
rule. It has been used extensively in fatigue design and, despite its many shortcomings,
remains an important tool in fatigue life predictions. The formation of the American Society
for Testing and Materials (ASTM) Committee E-09 on Fatigue in 1946, with Peterson' as its
first chairman, provided a forum for fatigue testing standards and research. Peterson
emphasized that the fatigue notch factor, Kf, was a function of the theoretical stress
concentration factor, Kt, the notch and component geometry, and the ultimate tensile strength.
In 1953 he published a comprehensive book on stress concentration factors and an expanded
version in 1974.
In the period 1945-1960 the foundations of the Low-Cycle-Fatigue were established due to
the contributions of Coffin and Manson (1955). Motivated by the aircraft industry, the “fail
safe” and “safe life” design approaches were discussed. Miner’s rule was intensively
investigated to verify its validity and alternative rules were proposed to overcome the
limitations of the linear damage rule. Irwin in 1958, following the previous works by Griffith,
realized that the stress intensity factor was the leading parameter to control the static strength
of cracked bodies. This contribution led to the Linear Elastic Fracture Mechanics [3].
After 1960 we assist to the development of the Fracture Mechanics and its application to
fatigue. One inevitable contribution is the one proposed by Paris (1962) who first recognized
the relation between fatigue and Fracture Mechanics. The so-called Paris relation was a
pioneer contribution in this field. After this relation, an uncountable number of crack
12 STATE OF THE ART IN FATIGUE

propagation relations have been proposed to overcome known limitations of the Paris relation.
Elber (1963) gave also an important contribution for the understanding of fatigue crack
growth under variable amplitude loading, introducing the “crack closure” concept. With the
development of fracture mechanics, “damage tolerance” design was adopted in some
structures, particularly in Aeronautics [3].
During the 1980s and 1990s, many researchers were investigating the complex problem of in-
phase and out-of-phase multiaxial fatigue. The critical plane method suggested by Brown and
Miller" motivated a new philosophy concerning this problem, and many additional critical
plane models were developed. The small crack problem was noted during this time, and many
workers attempted to understand the behaviour. The small crack problem was complex and
important, since these cracks grew faster than longer cracks based upon the same driving
force. Definitions became very confusing. Interest in the fatigue of electronic materials
increased, along with significant research on thermomechanical fatigue. Also during the
1980s and 1990s, significant changes in many aspects of fatigue design were attributed to
advances in computer technology. These included software for different fatigue life
(durability) models and advances in the ability to simulate real loadings under variable
amplitude conditions with specimens, components, or full-scale structures. This brought
significantly more field testing into the laboratory. Integrated CAE involving dynamic
simulation, finite element analysis, and life prediction/estimation models created the idea of
restricting testing to component durability rather than using it for development. Increased
digital prototyping with less testing has become a goal of twenty-first-century fatigue design.
Despite the very significant advances in fatigue understanding and the current fatigue design
practice for structures and mechanical components under dynamic loads, many topics require
more research [4].
2.2 Nature of Fatigue
Metals when subjected to repeated cyclic load exhibit damage by fatigue. The magnitude of
stress in each cycle is not sufficient to cause failure with a single cycle. Large number of
cycles are therefore needed for failure by fatigue. Fatigue manifests in the form of initiation or
nucleation of a crack followed by its growth until the critical crack size of the parent metal
under the operating load is reached leading to rupture. Behaviour of metal under cyclic load
differs from that under monotonic load. New cracks can nucleate during cyclic load that does
not happen under static monotonic load. Importantly, fatigue crack nucleates and grows at
stress levels far below the monotonic tensile strength of the metal. The crack advances
continuously by very small amounts, its growth rate decided by the magnitude of load and
geometry of the component. Also the nucleated crack may not grow at all or may propagate
extremely slowly resulting in high fatigue life of the component if the applied stress is less
than the metal fatigue limit. However, maintaining that condition in actual working
components with design constraints and discontinuities calls for limited service loads which
may be an impediment. Therefore, fatigue cracks in most cases are permissible but with
proper knowledge of fracture mechanics about the allowable or critical crack size. The
component under cyclic load can work satisfactorily for years, albeit with hidden crack

growth, but ruptures suddenly without any pre-warning. Such characteristics make cyclic load
more dangerous than monotonic load [5].
As stated before, fatigue life until failure consists of two periods: the crack initiation period
and the crack growth period as shown in Figure 8. Differentiating between the two periods is
of great importance because several surface conditions do affect the initiation period, but have
a negligible influence on the crack growth period. The stress concentration factor, Kt, is the
important parameter for predictions on crack initiation. The stress intensity factor, K, is used
for predictions on crack growth.
Figure 8. Fatigue life stages [6].
2.3 Factors Influencing Fatigue Life
The factors that influence the fatigue life prediction of materials and structures are the
following:
a) Metal microstructure: Metal with large grains have low yield strength and reduced
fatigue limit and vice-versa. However, at higher temperatures, the coarse grained metal
is seen to show better fatigue properties. Barriers to crack growth in the form of
precipitates, impurities, grain boundaries, etc. improve fatigue properties. Phase
transformations occurring during cyclic loading can also influence the fatigue life.
b) Manufacturing process: Fatigue properties are better in the direction of forging,

extrusion and rolling and are lower in the transverse direction. Some specific
processes like shot peening, cold rolling etc. and other hardening/heat treatment
methods that induce compressive residual stresses reduce the chances of crack
initiation and enhance the fatigue properties. Tensile residual stresses on the other
hand promote crack initiation. Other manufacturing processes like forming, drawing,
forging, extrusion, rolling, machining, punching etc., that produce rough surfaces,
decrease fatigue life. A rough surface possesses more crack initiation sites due to
unevenness and asperities. Polished and ground surfaces on the other hand have
excellent high fatigue life due to minimum asperities.

c) Component geometry: Discontinuities such as holes, notches and joints, that are the
source of stress risers, facilitate crack initiation. Fatigue life of a notched component is
less than that of an un-notched one when subjected to similar loads.
d) Type of environment: Aqueous and corrosive environments promote crack initiation

and increase crack growth rate although crack tip blunting and closure due to
accumulation of environmental products at crack tip may dip crack growth rate to
some extent. But the overall effect of such environments is to enhance crack growth
rate. Under high temperature too, fatigue resistance in most metals generally
diminishes with increase in crack growth rate due to the effect of creep.
e) Loading condition: Multiaxial loads reduces fatigue life in comparison with uniaxial
loads except in the case of pure torsional loading. Mean stress also influences fatigue
life. Positive tensile mean stress reduces fatigue life whereas negative mean stress may
increase it. The influence of mean stress is more significant in low strain or high cycle
fatigue regime [5].
2.4 Fatigue Crack Initiation
Fatigue crack initiation and crack growth are a consequence of cyclic slip in slip bands
(Figure 9). It implies cyclic plastic deformation as a result of moving dislocations. Fatigue
occurs at stress amplitudes below the yield stress. At such a low stress level, plastic
deformation is limited to a small number of grains of the material. This micro-plasticity can
occur more easily in grains at the material surface because the surrounding material is present
at one side only.
Cyclic slip requires a cyclic shear stress. On a micro scale the shear stress is not
homogeneously distributed through the material. The shear stress on crystallographic slip
planes differs from grain to grain, depending on the size and shape of the grains,
crystallographic orientation of the grains, and elastic anisotropy of the material. In some
grains at the material surface, these conditions are more favourable for cyclic slip than in
other surface grains. Another significant aspect is that slip during the increase of the load also
implies some strain hardening in the slip band. As a consequence, upon unloading a larger
shear stress will be present on the same slip band, but now in the reversed direction. Reversed
slip will thus preferably occur in the same slip band. As a consequence, reversed slip,
although occurring in the same slip band, will occur on adjacent parallel slip planes [5].
The lower restraint on cyclic slip at the material surface has been mentioned as a favourable
condition for crack initiation at the free surface. However, more arguments for crack initiation
at the material surface are present. A very practical reason is the inhomogeneous stress
distribution due to a notch effect of a hole or some other geometric discontinuity. Because of
an inhomogeneous stress distribution, a peak stress occurs at the surface (stress
concentration). Furthermore, surface roughness also promotes crack initiation at the material

surface. Within the light of the discussions it can be concluded that the crack initiation period
fatigue is a material surface phenomenon.
Figure 9. Crack occurrence in cyclic loading [5].
2.5 Fatigue Growth
As long as the size of the microcrack is still in the order of a single grain, the microcrack is
obviously present in an elastically anisotropic material with a crystalline structure and a
number of different slip systems. The microcrack contributes to an inhomogeneous stress
distribution on a micro level, with a stress concentration at the tip of the microcrack. As a
result, more than one slip system may be activated. Moreover, if the crack is growing into the
material in some adjacent grains, the constraint on slip displacements will increase due to the
presence of the neighbouring grains. Similarly, it will become increasingly difficult to
accommodate the slip displacements by a single slip system only such as parallel
crystallographic planes. It should occur on slip planes in different directions. The microcrack
growth direction will then deviate from the initial slip band orientation [6]. In general, there is
a tendency to grow perpendicular to the loading direction (Figure 10).
The microcrack growth is dependent on cyclic plasticity; barriers to slip can imply a threshold
for crack growth. In the literature, several observations are reported on initially
inhomogeneous microcrack growth, which starts with a relatively high crack growth rate and
then slows down or even stops due to material structural barriers. Two important surface
aspects are no longer relevant. The lower restraint on cyclic slip at the surface is not
applicable at the interior of the material, where inclusions or other kind of irregularities may
act as trigger for crack initiation. Secondly, surface roughness and other surface conditions do
not affect crack growth. Crack growth resistance, when the crack penetrates into the material,
depends on the material as a bulk property [4].

Figure 10. Fatigue crack growth [6].
2.6 Fatigue Life Prediction Methods
In this section an overview is given of different fatigue life prediction models. Since it falls
beyond the scope of this study to provide a general overview of all existing fatigue
modelling techniques, this overview is limited to stress-life and local strain fatigue models.
These techniques can be grouped into the following categories:
• Stress-life approach;
• Local strain models;
• Fracture mechanics;
• Multiaxial models.
The stress-life approach was the first fatigue prediction technique to be developed. This
technique is generally used to predict the total life of a component. Local strain models,
however, only consider the crack initiation life. This approach can be used when crack
initiation dominates the total fatigue life. On the other hand, fracture mechanics only deals
with the crack propagation stage. When both the crack initiation and propagation stage of a
component are important, local strain models can be used in conjunction with fracture
mechanics to predict the total fatigue life by simply adding the calculated number of cycles
in the two stages.

Multiaxial fatigue models take into account the multiaxial stress or strain distribution at
notches or crack tips and can either be based on a stress or strain based approach or
can be based on energetic criteria. Depending on the criterion, the models predict fatigue
crack initiation, propagation or total fatigue life.
2.6.1 Stress-life approach
2.6.1.1 S-N curves
The stress-life approach is the oldest among the fatigue analysis techniques. This method
was developed by Wohler and is based on experimental observations. The mathematical
relations of this approach are derived from the so-called S-N curve or Wohler curve of
which an example is shown in Figure 10. This curve is obtained by subjecting a number
of test specimens to fatigue tests at different stress levels. During a single test, the load is
fluctuated with a constant amplitude until failure occurs. How failure is defined, depends on
the test specimen. For standardized strip- or bar-like specimens, failure means commonly
total fracture of the specimen, while for tubular specimens a through-wall crack is generally
considered as failure. The resulting number of load cycles to failure N corresponding with a
certain stress amplitude Sa is then plotted in the S-N curve. The number of cycles N is
plotted on the horizontal axis, which is conventionally put in logarithmic scale. The stress
amplitude on the vertical axis can be either logarithmically or linearly plotted.
A typical example of an S-N curve is shown in Figure 11. I t starts as a sloping curve
changing into a horizontal asymptote with the number of cycles to failure becoming
infinite. The stress level corresponding to the asymptote is referred to as the fatigue
limit. Since stresses below the fatigue limit would never result in fatigue failure, tests are
generally stopped when a certain number of cycles is reached, for example at 2x106 cycles.
Fatigue test data are prone to scatter, due to the nature of the fatigue mechanism.
Nevertheless, the data can be embedded in a certain fatigue- fracture band wherein the
probability of failure changes from a low probability next to the finite-life region, to a high
probability next to the fracture region. Typically a mean curve for the finite-life region
with a 50 % probability of failure is used according to the Basquin relation [7]:
Sak · N = constant (2.1)

Figure 11. Typical S-N curve of a medium-strength steel.
For design purposes a probability of failure of 50 % is obviously unacceptable. For this

reason design curves are used which are obtained by subtracting two times the standard
deviation from the mean curve which corresponds to a probability of failure of 4.55 %.
The stress amplitude to which the fatigue life is related to is generally a nominal stress, since
it is derived from the forces applied in the experimental test setup. This has the advantage
of avoiding complex stress analysis evaluate the test specimens. However, this means that
results obtained for a specific component cannot easily be extended to a modified
component. Additionally, S-N curves are obtained from constant amplitude tests whereas in
practice most components are subjected to variable amplitude stresses. To use S-N data for
practical load histories, the cumulative fatigue damage model of Miner [8] can be used:
𝑛𝑖
𝐷=∑ (2.2)
𝑁𝑖
𝑖
Miner postulated that fatigue damage accumulates linearly. When a component is

subjected to ni stress cycles at a stress which has Ni cycles to failure, then a fraction of
nilNi of the total life is consumed. The damage accumulated over the cycles at different
stress levels is summed up to give the total damage D. The component would fail if D
becomes one. Miner's theory assumes that damage can be superimposed, that the
appearing damage is irreversible and that there is no interaction between different stress

levels in the sense that it is unimportant in which order the component experiences the
stress cycles.
2.6.1.2 Mean stress effect
Fatigue tests can be carried out with a fully reversible load with zero mean stress or
with a fluctuating load with a certain prestress. To make the test conditions clear, a
load ratio R as defined by Eq. (2.3) should be mentioned with every S-N curve.
Additionally, Sr is the applied stress range and Sm is the mean stress.
𝑆𝑚𝑖𝑛
𝑅= (2.3)
𝑆𝑚𝑎𝑥
where Smin and Smax are respectively the minimum and maximum applied stress, as shown in
Figure 12.
Many S-N curves are given for a fully reversible fatigue load with zero mean stress or load
ratio R = -1. In order to compare data obtained in tests conducted at a different load ratio,
the Goodman Eq. (2.4) can be used to correct the mean stress effect.
Figure 12. Stress definitions.
With this equation the fatigue stress Sf as would occur for a fully reversible fatigue load
can be calculated from the applied stress amplitude Sa taking into account the ratio
between the applied mean stress Sm and the material's tensile strength σUTS.
𝑆𝑎 𝑆𝑚
=1− (2.4)
𝑆𝑓 𝜎𝑈𝑇𝑆

2.6.1.3 Stress concentrations
To determine the fatigue life of a machined component, the fatigue data of standard test
specimens can be used. However, a real-life component has an arbitrary size with a
certain stress concentration, an arbitrary surface finish and an arbitrary loading mode,
while standard test specimens have prescribed dimensions and a polished surface. To take
all these differences into account, the fatigue stress of the machined component Sf,comp can
be estimated from the fatigue stress of a standard component Sf by introducing a number
of correction factors:
𝑆𝑓
𝑆𝑓,𝑐𝑜𝑚𝑝 = 𝑘𝑎 𝑘𝑏 𝑘𝑐 (2.5)
𝐾𝑓
In this equation ka is a correction factor for the loading mode, since the fatigue behaviour of
a component is different when the loads are applied e.g. in tension or bending mode. The
factor kb deals with the size effect, which takes into account that the effect of fatigue
failure on small standardized specimens can be different from the effect on a bigger
structure. kc is a surface roughness factor that allows to relate the results of polished
standard specimens to machined parts with a higher surface roughness. Finally, Kf is the
fatigue notch factor. This can be calculated from the geometrical stress concentration
factor Kt by Eq. (2.6) with q the notch sensitivity factor.
𝐾𝑓 = 1 + 𝑞(𝐾𝑡 − 1) (2.6)
When using this technique to evaluate threaded connections based on experimental data
of the pipeline steel, one should consider that the factors ka, kb, kc and q are all given by
empirical relations or charts, which means that each single factor is subjected to a certain
amount of uncertainty. Additionally, the input for these relations or charts requires
measurements of local parameters such as surface roughness and root radii. Next to this,
selecting a certain uniaxial loading mode from a complex stress distribution might be an
oversimplification. Due to these assumptions and the scatter of every factor, the
calculated life might differ significantly from the real behaviour of the connection.
2.6.2 Local Approaches
Fatigue design philosophy has evolved from fatigue limit and infinite life criteria to
approaches based on finite life behaviour. The local approaches use fatigue damage
parameters to correlate fatigue test results, especially for crack initiation life. In order to
predict the fatigue life under a specified condition, different fatigue damage parameters have
been proposed to correlate fatigue life. The local approaches are generally divided into three
categories, i.e., stress-based, strain-based and energy-based methods, when stress, strain or
energy are independently used as the fatigue damage parameter [4]. Models to account for
the stress level effect referring to the stress-based, strain-based and energy-based methods
have been proposed by different authors. These models are presented in the following.

2.6.2.1 Stress-based method
The stress-life method uses the alternating stress amplitude to predict the number of cycles to
failure [4]. This method is based on comparing the stress amplitude to stress amplitude
versus fatigue life curve (S-N diagram). The S-N curves are based on empirical formulas
derived from experimental data. The stress-life method is generally only used for high cycle
fatigue, because under low cycle fatigue the stress-strain relationship becomes nonlinear.
Similar to S-N curves, the relation between stress amplitude, Δσ/2, and the number of cycles
to failure, 𝑁𝑓 , can be approximated by a straight line when the stress amplitude and the
fatigue life are both expressed on a logarithmic scale, thus resulting in [7]:
∆𝜎
= 𝜎 ′𝑓 ∙ (𝑁𝑓 )𝑏 (2.7)
2
where 𝜎 ′𝑓 is the fatigue strength coefficient, and b is the fatigue strength exponent. For many
loading cases, the mean stress is not zero. Although the stress level effect is often neglected
in fatigue life calculations for welded details, the high residual stresses in such details tend to
obliterate any possible effect of applied stress level. However, in non-welded details, the
effect of stress level must be accounted for in the fatigue life calculations.
Morrow [9] proposed a correction to account for the mean stress effect as follows:
∆𝜎
= (𝜎 ′ 𝑓 − 𝜎𝑚 ) ∙ (𝑁𝑓 )𝑏 (2.8)
2
where 𝜎𝑚 is the mean stress and the other variables are the same as for Equation (2.8). The
effect of the tensile mean stress is thus equivalent to a reduction of the fatigue strength
coefficient. The model assumes that a given combination of stress amplitude, Δσ/2, and mean
stress, σm, is expected to have the same fatigue life as a fully reversed stress amplitude of
∆𝜎
( ) , where:
2 −1
∆𝜎
∆𝜎 2
( ) = (2.9)
2 −1 1 − 𝜎𝑚
𝜎 ′𝑓
The Morrow correction for stress-based method was found to work reasonably well for
structural grades of steels.
2.6.2.2 Strain Based Approach
The strain-based approach to fatigue problems is widely used at present. Strain can be
measured and has been shown to be an excellent quantity for correlating with low-cycle

fatigue. For example, gas turbines operate at fairly steady stresses, but when they are started
or stopped, they are subjected to a very high stress range. The local strains can be well above
the yield strain, and the stresses are more difficult to measure or estimate than the strains.
The most common application of the strain-based approach, however, is in fatigue of notched
members. In a notched component or specimen subjected to cyclic external loads, the
behaviour of material at the root of the notch is best considered in terms of strain. As long as
there is elastic constraint surrounding a local plastic zone at the notch, the strains can be
calculated more easily than the stress [3]. This concept has motivated the strain-life design
method based on relating the fatigue life of notched parts to the life of small, unnotched
specimens that are cycled to the same strains as the material at the notch root. Since fatigue
damage is assessed directly in terms of local strain, this approach is called the "local strain
approach". A reasonable expected fatigue life, based on the nucleation or formation of small
macrocracks, can then be determined if one knows the local strain-time history at a notch in a
component and the unnotched strain-life fatigue properties of the material. The remaining
fatigue crack growth life of a component can be analysed using fracture mechanics concepts.
For engineering materials at room temperature, cyclic hardening or softening usually takes
place rapidly at first and then approaches to a stable condition. The stable cyclic stress versus
strain curve is often defined using the Ramberg-Osgood equation [10]. The curve can be
determined from several companion specimens cycled at various constant strain amplitudes
or from a single specimen in conformity with the incremental step test method.
The total strain amplitude in Figure 13 can be resolved into elastic and plastic strain
components from the steady-state hysteresis loops. At a given life, N1, the total strain is the
sum of the elastic and plastic strains. Both the elastic and plastic curves can be approximated
as straight lines. At large strains or short lives the plastic strain component is predominant,
and at small strains or longer lives the elastic strain component is predominant.
Figure 13. Strain-life curves showing total, elastic, and plastic strain components.

Basquin’s equation [7], proposed in 1910, which represent the elastic component of the strain
𝐸
amplitude, ∆𝜀 ⁄2, can be obtained as follows:
∆𝜀 𝐸 𝜎 ′𝑓
= (𝑁𝑓 )𝑏 (2.10)
2 𝐸
𝑃
The plastic strain amplitude, ∆𝜀 ⁄2, versus fatigue life can also be linearized on a
logarithmic scale for low cycle fatigue. The relationship between the plastic strain amplitude
and fatigue crack initiation life can be expressed in the following form which is known as
Manson-Coffin relationship [11,12] proposed in the early 1960s:
∆𝜀 𝑃
= 𝜀 ′𝑓 (𝑁𝑓 )𝑐 (2.11)
2
where 𝜀 ′𝑓 is the fatigue ductility coefficient, and c is the fatigue ductility exponent, both
determined experimentally. By adding the elastic and plastic components of strain amplitude,
given respectively by Equations (2.10) and (2.11), the relationship between the total strain
amplitude, ∆𝜀⁄2, and fatigue life can be expressed as:
∆𝜀 ∆𝜀 𝐸 ∆𝜀 𝑃 𝜎 ′𝑓
= + = (𝑁𝑓 )𝑏 + 𝜀 ′𝑓 (𝑁𝑓 )𝑐 (2.12)
2 2 2 𝐸
The life at which elastic and plastic components of strain are equal is called the "transition
fatigue life", 2Nt. This is the life at which the elastic and plastic strain-life curves intersect.
In strain-controlled cycling with a mean strain usually results in a mean stress, which may
relax fully or partially with continued cycling, as shown in Figure 14. This relaxation is due
to the presence of plastic deformation, and therefore, the rate or amount of relaxation
depends on the magnitude of the plastic strain amplitude. As a result, there is more mean
stress relaxation at larger strain amplitudes. Mean strain does not usually affect fatigue
behaviour unless it results in a non-fully relaxed mean stress. Since there is more mean stress
relaxation at higher strain amplitudes due to larger plastic strains, mean stress effect on
fatigue life is smaller in the low-cycle fatigue region and larger in the high cycle fatigue
region. The inclusion of mean stress effects in fatigue life prediction methods involving
strain-life data is more complex. Several models dealing with mean stress effects on strain-
life fatigue behaviour are discussed in. One method, often referred to as "Morrow's mean
stress method", replaces 𝜎 ′𝑓 with (𝜎 ′ 𝑓 − 𝜎𝑚 ) in Eq. 2.12, where 𝜎𝑚 is the mean stress, such
that [9]:
′
∆𝜀 (𝜎 𝑓
− 𝜎𝑚 )
= 𝜀𝑎 = ∙ (2𝑁𝑓 )𝑏 + 𝜀 ′𝑓 (2𝑁𝑓 )𝑐 (2.13)
2 𝐸

Figure 14. Mean stress relaxation under strain-controlled cycling with a mean strain [3].
An alternative version of Morrow's mean stress parameter where both the elastic and plastic
terms are affected by the mean stress is given by Manson:
𝑐
′
∆𝜀 (𝜎 𝑓
− 𝜎𝑚 ) 𝜎 ′𝑓 − 𝜎𝑚 𝑏
= 𝜀𝑎 = ∙ (2𝑁𝑓 )𝑏 + 𝜀 ′𝑓 ( ) (2𝑁𝑓 )𝑐 (2.14)
2 𝐸 𝜎 ′𝑓
Another equation suggested by Smith, Watson, and Topper [13] (often called the "SWT
parameter"), based on strain-life test data obtained with various mean stresses, is
(𝜎 ′ 𝑓 )2
𝜎𝑚𝑎𝑥 𝜀𝑎 = ∙ (2𝑁𝑓 )2𝑏 + 𝜎 ′𝑓 𝜀 ′ 𝑓 (2𝑁𝑓 )𝑏+𝑐 (2.15)
𝐸
where 𝜎𝑚𝑎𝑥 = 𝜎𝑚 + 𝜎𝑎 and 𝜀𝑎 is the alternating strain. This equation is based on the
assumption that for different combinations of strain amplitude, 𝜀𝑎 , and mean stress, 𝜎𝑚𝑎𝑥 the
product 𝜎𝑚𝑎𝑥 𝜀𝑎 remains constant for a given life.
2.6.3 Multiaxial Fatigue Approaches
When dealing with structures subjected to complex load cases, the above mentioned fatigue
analysis approaches, might not give accurate results since they consider the dynamic loads to
be uniaxial. Even in situations where the global acting stress is purely uniaxial, the local
stress situation around notches or irregularities can be multiaxial. To describe such load
cases more accurately, multiaxial fatigue models were developed.
The origin of multiaxiality in stress is dependent on various parameters such as type of

loading, complex geometry of the mechanical parts, residual stresses or pre-stresses, etc. In
order to estimate fatigue strength of the components, many multiaxial fatigue criteria have
been proposed in the literature for metals. From technical point of view, multiaxial criteria
for prediction of fatigue strength of mechanical components may be categorized into three

main groups, namely stress based criteria, strain based criteria and energy based approaches.
As for the stress criteria proposed by Susmel and Lazzarin, McDiarmid, Crossland and so on,
are based only on stress and are suitable for high cycle fatigue when the deformation is
elastic or the plastic strain is small. The strain criteria such as the Brown–Miller model,
Fatemi–Socie, Li–Zhang and Wang–Brown model, are appropriate for such cases in which
there is significant plasticity. The energy based multiaxial criteria such as the Smith–
Watson–Topper model, Glinka and Varani-Farahani include both stress and strain terms.
Multiaxial fatigue criteria, from another point of view, can be categorized as those criteria
which use the critical plane concept and those do not use this concept. In the multiaxial
fatigue criteria based on critical plane, initially a material plane on which a combination of
some stress components has the maximum value has been determined. Then, fatigue
parameters as combinations of the maximum shear strain or stress and normal strain or stress
on the critical plane have been calculated. The criteria will be checked then on this plane.
Like to classical models, critical plane models can be stress-, strain- or energy-based. The
concept of critical planes was primarily proposed by Brown and Miller. Brown and Miller
proposed a strain-based parameter that considers that fatigue life to be a non-linear function
of strain. The critical plane of this parameter is the plane of maximum shear strain. Firstly,
the history of strain on the critical plane is analysed; and then strain parameters are used to
quantify the damage parameters on the critical plane. Various terms have been proposed for
different materials and experimental results. Socie proposed that the fatigue life criterion
should be based on a physical mechanism. Socie modified the SWT parameter for a material
with tensile-type failures, by taking the view that crack growth is perpendicular to the
maximum tensile stress.
The energy criteria have been used in conjunction with the critical plane approach, as
proposed by Liu, and Glinka. Varani-Farahani (VF) proposed critical plane based energy
parameters that are weighted by axial and shear fatigue properties of the material. In fact,
many efforts have been made to evaluate the performance of multiaxial fatigue criteria for
various materials, notched and unnotched components, different loading conditions and
stress (and strain) states by several authors such as Papadopoulos et al., Sonsino, Brown and
Miller, You and Lee, Macha and Sonsino, Wang and Yao, Chakherlou and Abazadeh,
Varvani-Farahani et al., and Jiang et al. However, due to the complexity of this challenging
problem and its practical application, much additional studies are still needed to evaluate the
accuracy and reliability of the multiaxial fatigue criteria in design, life estimation, and failure
assessment particularly for practical specimens [14]. Some multiaxial fatigue life estimation
methods for bolted connections were presented below.
2.6.3.1 Stress-based fatigue criteria
Gough and Pollard [15,16] proposed for ductile metals under combined in-phase bending and
torsion the following equation for the fatigue limit under combined multiaxial stresses:
𝜎𝑏 2 𝜏𝑡 2
( ) +( ) =1 (2.16)
𝜎𝐹𝐿 𝜏𝐹𝐿

Sines [17] proposed an alternative criterion in high-cycle fatigue regime, which became very
popular:
√𝐽2,𝑎 + 𝑘𝜎𝐻,𝑚 ≤ 𝜆 (2.17)
A similar criterion was proposed by Findley [18], Matake [19] and McDiarmid [20] using the
shear stress amplitude and the maximum normal stress on the critical plane as parameters:
𝜏𝑎,𝑐𝑟 + 𝑘𝜎𝑛,𝑐𝑟 ≤ 𝜆 (2.18)
McDiarmid [20] defined k and λ as follows:
𝑡𝐴,𝐵
𝑘= , 𝜆 = 𝑡𝐴,𝐵 (2.19)
2𝜎𝑢
Papadopoulos [21] proposed a fatigue limit criterion which could be used in constant
amplitude multiaxial proportional and non-proportional loading in high-cycle fatigue regime:
𝜏𝑎,𝑐𝑟 + 𝑘𝜎𝐻,𝑚𝑎𝑥 = 𝜆 (2.20)
Crossland’s criterion [22] uses the square root from the second invariant of stress tensor.
This invariant is determined from the stress amplitude. Another term added to the equation is
the hydrostatic stress calculated from maximal stress values.
𝑎𝑐 ∙ √𝐽2,𝑎 + 𝑏𝑐 ∙ 𝜎𝐻,𝑚𝑎𝑥 ≤ 𝑓−1 (2.21)
The Crossland criterion [22] is a stress based multiaxial fatigue criterion which uses the
second invariant of deviatoric stress tensor and maximum hydrostatic stress in its equation.
𝑏
√𝐽2,𝑎 + 𝑘 ∙ 𝜎𝐻,𝑚𝑎𝑥 = 𝜎𝑓′ (2𝑁𝑓 ) (2.22)
1
√𝐽2,𝑎 = [(∆𝜎1 − ∆𝜎2 )2 + (∆𝜎2 − ∆𝜎3 )2 + (∆𝜎1 − ∆𝜎3 )2 ]1/2 (2.23)
2√6
where 𝐽2,𝑎 is the amplitude of second invariant of deviatoric stress tensor and 𝜎𝐻,𝑚𝑎𝑥 is the
maximum value of the hydrostatic stress (sum of the mean and amplitude values of the
hydrostatic stress). Also k is a material dependent constant.

2.6.3.2 Strain-based type criteria
Findley and Tracy [23, 24] proposed a fatigue life equation in low-cycle fatigue regime about
the influence of normal stresses to the maximum shear stress plane, with the following form:
∆𝜏 𝑏
(𝑘 ∙ 𝜎𝑛 + ) = 𝜏𝑓∗ (𝑁𝑓 ) (2.24)
2 𝑚𝑎𝑥
where k is a material constant, Δτ/2 (=τa) is the alternating shear stress, σn,max is the maximum
normal stress, and variable 𝜏𝑓∗ is determined using the torsional fatigue strength coefficient,
𝜏𝑓∗ , in the equation:
𝜏𝑓∗ = √1 + 𝑘 2 ∙ 𝜏𝑓′ (2.25)
Brown and Miller [25] defined the damage critical plane and proposed the following
equation:
∆𝜏 𝜎𝑓′ 𝑏 𝑐
(𝑆 ∙ ∆𝜀𝑛 + ) = 𝐴 (2𝑁𝑓 ) + 𝐵𝜀𝑓′ (2𝑁𝑓 ) (2.26)
2 𝑚𝑎𝑥 𝐸
with
𝐴 = 1.3 + 0.7𝑆 𝑎𝑛𝑑 𝐵 = 1.5 + 0.5𝑆 (2.27)
where S is a Brown and Miller constant.
Fatemi and Socie [26] proposed a strain-based parameter that considers the plane of
maximum shear strain amplitude as a critical plane. Fatemi–Socie fatigue model is expressed
as
∆𝛾𝑚𝑎𝑥 𝜎𝑛,𝑚𝑎𝑥 𝜏𝑓′ ′ ′

(1 + 𝑘 )= (2𝑁𝑓 )𝑏 + 𝛾𝑓′ (2𝑁𝑓 )𝑐 (2.28)
2 𝜎𝑦 2𝐺
where ∆𝛾𝑚𝑎𝑥 is the maximum shear strain and 𝜎𝑛,𝑚𝑎𝑥 is the maximum normal on the plane
that ∆𝛾𝑚𝑎𝑥 occurs. Also k=0.3 is the Fatemi–Socie constant and 𝜎𝑦 is the tensile yield
strength which can be obtained from uniaxial and torsional tests. The coefficients 𝜏𝑓′ , 𝛾𝑓′ and
G are the torsional fatigue strength and ductility coefficients, and the shear modulus
respectively. The exponents 𝑏 ′ and 𝑐 ′ are the torsional fatigue strength and ductility
exponents, respectively. The physical basis of Fatemi–Socie parameter is shown in Figure
8b. The maximum normal stress term in Fatemi–Socie parameters enable it to include mean
stresses.

Kandil, Brown and Miller (KBM) [22] proposed a multiaxial theory based on a physical
interpretation of mechanisms of fatigue crack growth. The general form of KBM’s parameter
is expressed as:
∆𝛾𝑚𝑎𝑥 𝜎𝑓′
+ 𝑆𝑘 ∆𝜀𝑛 = (2𝑁𝑓 )𝑏 + 𝜀𝑓′ (2𝑁𝑓 )𝑐 (2.29)
2 𝐸
The critical plane of this parameter is the plane of maximum shear strain, where ∆𝛾𝑚𝑎𝑥 the
maximum is shear strain range and ∆𝜀𝑛 is the corresponding normal strain range at the
critical plane. Also, Sk is a material dependent constant which is chosen so that the equation
gives the same fatigue life as for uniaxial stresses. These values can be determined with
principal stresses and strains obtained from finite element analyses, and therefore, using Eqs.
(2.30) and (2.31) for nodes around the bolt hole. In Eqs. (2.30) and (2.31), 𝜀1 , and 𝜀3 , are the
first and third principal strains respectively. In addition, 𝜃1 and 𝜃2 in these equations are
indicating loading and unloading of a cycle. These parameters are determined for every node
around the hole and the maximum value of the left hand side of Eq. (2.32) is used to predict
the fatigue life of the specimens.
∆𝛾 𝜀1 − 𝜀3 𝜀1 − 𝜀3
=( ) −( ) (2.30)
2 2 𝜃1 2 𝜃2
∆𝜀𝑛 𝜀1 + 𝜀3 𝜀1 + 𝜀3
=( ) −( ) (2.31)
2 2 𝜃1 2 𝜃2
2.6.3.3 Energy-based criteria
Smith et al. [13] proposed an experimental damage parameter which is evaluated at the plane
of maximum normal strain. The SWT multiaxial fatigue model is expressed as;
∆𝜀1 (𝜎𝑓′ )2
𝜎𝑛𝑚𝑎𝑥 = (2𝑁𝑓 )2𝑏 + 𝜎𝑓′ 𝜀𝑓′ (2𝑁𝑓 )𝑏+𝑐 (2.32)
2 𝐸
where 𝜎𝑛𝑚𝑎𝑥 and 𝜀1 are the maximum normal stress and the maximum principal strain range
at the critical plane. A schematic that illustrates the physical basis of SWT parameter is
∆𝜀
shown in Figure 15a. In this study the maximum value of the product, (𝜎𝑛𝑚𝑎𝑥 1 ) in any
2
node has been used. To do so, 𝜎𝑛𝑚𝑎𝑥 (maximum normal stress) and 𝜀1 (first principal strain
range) have been calculated during cyclic loading in any node of the FE models and
consequently the maximum amount of the product of these two parameters has been
employed in Eq. (2.32) to calculate the estimated fatigue life.

(a) (b)
Figure 15. Crack growth: (a) tensile crack growth according to SWT criterion and (b) effect
of normal stress on shear crack growth according to FS criterion.
where σn is the maximum principal stress during the cycle and Δε1/2 is the principal strain
amplitude. Socie [27] modified the SWT parameter taking into account the parameters that
control the damage, such as:
𝑆𝑊𝑇 = ∆𝜀1𝑚𝑎𝑥 ∙ ∆𝜎1 + ∆𝛾1𝑚𝑎𝑥 ∙ ∆𝜏1 , 𝑓𝑜𝑟 𝑡𝑒𝑛𝑠𝑖𝑙𝑒 𝑚𝑜𝑑𝑒 (2.33)
𝑆𝑊𝑇 = ∆𝛾𝑚𝑎𝑥 ∙ ∆𝜏 + ∆𝜀𝑛 ∙ ∆𝜎𝑛 , 𝑓𝑜𝑟 𝑠ℎ𝑒𝑎𝑟 𝑚𝑜𝑑𝑒 (2.34)
Other approaches for the SWT parameter were proposed by Chu et al. [28], Liu [29] and
Glinka et al. [30]. Ellyin [31] proposed a model based on the energy density associated to
each cycle, ΔWt, which is composed by two parts: plastic strain energy, ΔWP, and the positive
elastic strain energy, ΔWE+. In the case of proportional or biaxial non-proportional loading,
the total energy density associated to a cycle may be computed as:
𝑡+𝑇 𝑡+𝑇
𝑃
Δ𝑊 𝑡 = Δ𝑊 𝑃 + Δ𝑊 𝐸+ = ∫ 𝜎𝑖𝑗 𝑑𝜀𝑖𝑗 + ∫ 𝐻(𝜎𝑖 )𝐻(𝑑𝜀𝑖𝑒 )𝜎𝑖 𝑑𝜀𝑖𝑒 (2.35)
𝑡 𝑡
𝑃
where 𝜎𝑖𝑗 and 𝜀𝑖𝑗 are the stress and plastic strain tensors, 𝜎𝑖 and 𝜀𝑖𝑒 are the principal stresses
and the principal elastic strains, T is the period of one cycle and H(x) is the Heaviside
function. The fatigue failure criterion is defined according to the following expression:
Δ𝑊 𝑃 𝛼
𝜓 = ΔW𝑡 = + Δ𝑊 𝐸+ = 𝜅(2𝑁𝑓 ) + 𝐶 (2.36)
𝜌̅
where κ, α and C are material parameters to be determined from appropriate tests and 2Nf is
the number of reversals to failure. The multiaxial constraint ratio, 𝜌̅ , can be determined using
the following expression:

𝜀̂𝑚𝑎𝑥
𝜌̅ = (1 + 𝜈̅ ) (2.37)
𝛾̂𝑚𝑎𝑥
with
𝜀̂𝑚𝑎𝑥 = 𝑚𝑎𝑥[𝜀𝑎 , 𝜀𝑡 ] (2.38)
𝛾̂𝑚𝑎𝑥 = 𝑚𝑎𝑥[|𝜀𝑎 − 𝜀𝑟 |, |𝜀𝑡 − 𝜀𝑟 |] (2.39)
where εa and εt are principal in-plane strain (axial and transversal) parallel to the free surface,
εr is the radial strain (perpendicular to the free surface), and 𝜈̅ is an effective Poisson’s ratio.
Glinka et al. [22] proposed a fatigue parameter by using the summation of elastic and plastic
energy densities on the critical shear plane.
∆γ ∆τ ∆εn ∆σn (σ′f )2 2b

Eε′f
∙ + ∙ = (2N f ) + (2Nf )b+c (2.40)
2 2 2 2 E 2
where ∆𝛾, ∆𝜏, ∆𝜀𝑛 and ∆𝜎𝑛 are the range of shear strain, shear stress range, normal strain
range and normal stress range on the critical plane respectively. These values can be
determined with principal stresses and strains obtained from the finite element analysis, and
therefore, using Eqs. (2.30), (2.31), (2.41), and (2.42) for nodes around the bolt hole. The
maximum value of the left hand side of Eq. (2.31) among the calculated values of the nodes
can be used to predict the fatigue life of specimens.
𝜎1 − 𝜎3 𝜎1 − 𝜎3
∆𝜏 = ( ) −( ) (2.41)
2 𝜃1 2 𝜃2
𝜎1 + 𝜎3 𝜎1 + 𝜎3
∆𝜎𝑛 = ( ) −( ) (2.42)
2 𝜃1 2 𝜃2
where 𝜎1 , and 𝜎3 are the biggest and smallest principal stress values respectively.
The Jahed-Varvani (JV) energy-based model [32], that considers the sum of plastic and
positive elastic strain energy densities as a measure of fatigue damage is used for fatigue life
predictions. As for SWT and FS, the JV model includes a mean stress effect and can be used
for both proportional and non-proportional loading conditions. This criterion defines the
critical plane as the plane where maximum amount of shear strain range occurs and uses
normal stress and strain perpendicular to the critical plane and introduces it as fatigue
damage parameter. However, the critical plane does not always coincide with the plane
where the fatigue damage parameter takes its maximum value. Therefore, the maximum

damage plane on which the fatigue damage parameter assumes its maximum value can be
defined as the critical plane.
𝜎𝑛𝑚
(1 + )
1 𝜎𝑓′ ∆𝜸 ∆𝝉 𝜎𝑓′ 𝑏 𝑐 𝜏𝑓′ 𝑏′
(∆𝜎𝑛 ∙ ∆𝜀𝑛 ) + ( ∙ ) = (2𝑁𝑓 ) + 𝜀𝑓′ (2𝑁𝑓 ) + (2𝑁𝑓 ) + 𝛾𝑓′ (2.43)
𝜎𝑓′ 𝜀𝑓′ ′ ′
𝜏𝑓 𝛾𝑓 𝟐 𝟐 𝐸 𝐺
[ ]𝑚𝑎𝑥
where the normal mean stress 𝜎𝑛𝑚 acting on the critical plane is given in [32]:
1
𝜎𝑛𝑚 = (𝜎𝑛𝑚𝑎𝑥 + 𝜎𝑛𝑚𝑖𝑛 ) (2.44)
2
In Eq. (2.43) ∆𝛾 and ∆𝜀𝑛 are calculated from Eqs. (2.40) and (2.41), and 𝜎𝑛 is the normal
stress. Eq. (2.43) is then solved for data of the critical node in which the left hand side of the
equation achieves its maximum value.
2.6.3.4 Nominal stress approach
The calculation of nominal normal (Δσnom) and shear (Δτnom) stress ranges using the theory of
elasticity are typical when applied with design codes. The fatigue assessment using the
nominal stress approach for several joints is shown in fatigue classes where the relation
between applied stress range, Δσnom or Δτnom, and fatigue life, N, is given by the following
relations:
𝑚
𝑁 ∙ ∆𝜎𝑛𝑜𝑚 =𝐶 (2.45)
𝑚 𝜏
𝑁 ∙ ∆𝜏𝑛𝑜𝑚 = 𝐶𝜏 (2.46)
where C, Cτ, m and mτ are material constants. The material constants m and mτ describe the
slope of the fatigue strength curves.
The normal and shear stresses effects must be combined in the multiaxial fatigue assessment.
The Eurocode 3 part 1-9 [33] present three different alternatives to take into account their
effects:
i) The effects of the shear stress range may be neglected, if the Δτnom<0.15Δσnom;
ii) For proportional loading, the maximum principal stress range may be used, in the
situation in that the plane of the maximum principal stress doesn’t change significantly in
the course of a loading event;

iii) For non-proportional loading events, the components of damage for normal and shear
stresses should be assessed separately using the interaction equation or the Palmgren-
Miner rule:
∆𝜎𝑒𝑞,𝑛𝑜𝑚 3 ∆𝜏𝑒𝑞,𝑛𝑜𝑚 5
( ) +( ) ≤1 (2.47)
∆𝜎𝑐 ∆𝜏𝑐
where Δσc and Δτc are the reference values of the fatigue strength at 2 million cycles.
𝐷𝜎 + 𝐷𝜏 ≤ 1 (2.48)
The computation of the equivalent normal and shear stress ranges are presented, as a function
of the normalized stress cycles, Nref:
𝑚 ∑𝑘𝑖=1(∆𝜎𝑛𝑜𝑚,𝑖
𝑚
∙ 𝑛𝑖 )
∆𝜎𝑒𝑞,𝑛𝑜𝑚 = √ (2.49)
𝑁𝑟𝑒𝑓
𝑚𝜏
𝑚𝜏 ∑𝑘𝑖=1(∆𝜏𝑛𝑜𝑚,𝑖 ∙ 𝑛𝑖 )
∆𝜏𝑒𝑞,𝑛𝑜𝑚 = √ (2.50)
𝑁𝑟𝑒𝑓
2.6.3.5 Fracture Mechanics criteria
The Fracture Mechanics is based on three cracks deformation modes. These deformation
modes are the following: opening mode or tension mode or mode I; in-plane shear or mode
II; and out-of-plane shear or mode III.
A simple power law relationship between the rate of the crack growth per cycle (da/dN) and
the range of stress intensity factor (ΔKI) to describe the tension mode for mode I in constant
or variable amplitude loading conditions was developed by Paris and Erdogan [34]:
𝑑𝑎
= 𝐶(∆𝐾𝐼 )𝑚 (2.51)
𝑑𝑁
where C and m are material constants (see Fig. 16).

Figure 16. Fatigue crack propagation regimes [6].
The crack growth rates in multiaxial fatigue loading may be determined using an equivalent
stress intensity range, ΔKeq. The multiaxial fatigue evaluations are conducted with Paris
simple power law by replacing ΔKI with ΔKeq [35,36]:
4 0.25
8 ∙ ∆𝐾𝐼𝐼𝐼
∆𝐾𝑒𝑞 = [∆𝐾𝐼4 +8∙ ∆𝐾𝐼𝐼4 + ] [35] (2.52)
1−𝜈
∆𝐾𝑒𝑞 = [∆𝐾𝐼2 + ∆𝐾𝐼𝐼2 + (1 + 𝜈) ∙ ∆𝐾𝐼𝐼𝐼

2 ]0.5
[36] (2.53)
where ν is the Poisson’s ratio.
The numerical automatic crack-box technique was developed to perform fine mixed-mode
fracture mechanics calculations. This technique was proposed by Lebaillif et al. [37] and
consists of the following steps:
i) Meshing of the three regions for the initial crack;
ii) Performing finite element method calculations associated with crack extension
criterion in order to determine the crack extension angle;
iii) Taking a crack growth increment in the direction corresponding to the crack
extension angle;
iv) Updating of local crack tip region mesh and connecting it by the use of transition
zone to the whole structure.

Another technique based on a two-step approach [38,39] was proposed in order to compute
the stress intensity factors of the mixed mode crack propagation tests using modified CT
geometries. The experimental data assessment for the mixed mode tests is performed using
Digital Image Correlation (DIC). DIC is used with two purposes:
i) Crack path evaluation;
ii) Stress intensity factors computation.


3. PROPOSED PROCEDURE FOR FATIGUE LIFE ESTIMATION OF

HALF-PIPES BOLTED CONNECTION
The proposed procedure to multiaxial fatigue life estimation of steel half-pipes bolted
connections applied in global structural models with beam elements using local approaches
can be summarized as follows [40]:
i) Linear-elastic analysis of the global structural model using beam elements;
ii) Definition of the global/local interface with the critical region identification and
interpolation region specification;
iii) Local model definition of the connection in order to build the local model using
linear-elastic analysis to obtain the stiffness of the joint;
iv) An elastoplastic analysis of the local model is also required to determine the
maximum principal stresses and strains at the fatigue critical points;
v) Local multiaxial fatigue damage analysis at the critical point using a multiaxial
damage criterion.
PROPOSED PROCEDURE FOR FATIGUE LIFE ESTIMATION OF HALF-PIPES BOLTED CONNECTION 37

Global Structural Model

Definition
Local Model of
the Typical Joint Linear-Elastic
Fatigue to obtain the Analysis using FEM
Loads stiffness
Determination of the
member forces
Global Structural
Analysis
Critical Region
Identification
Interpolation Region Elastoplastic Analysis

Specification using FEM
Local Model Definition
Global/Local Interface
Local fatigue damage Analysis

at the critical point
Figure 17. Schematic explanation of fatigue analysis procedure.
38 PROPOSED PROCEDURE FOR FATIGUE LIFE ESTIMATION OF HALF-PIPES BOLTED CONNECTION

4. EXPERIMENTAL FATIGUE DATA OF THE S355 MILD STEEL
The fatigue behaviour of the S355 mid steel was evaluated by De Jesus et al. [41,42], based
on experimental results from fatigue tests of smooth specimens and fatigue crack
propagation tests.
The fatigue tests of smooth specimens were carried out according to the ASTME606
standard [43], under strain-controlled conditions. Tables 1 and 2 summarize the elastic (E:
Young modulus) and monotonic strength properties (fy: yield strength; fu: tensile strength) as
well as the cyclic elastoplastic constants (K’: cyclic strain hardening coefficient; n’: cyclic
strain hardening exponent) and the strain-life constants (refer to Eq. (2.12)). Figure 18
illustrates the resulting experimental strain-life fatigue data.
The crack propagation tests were performed using compact tension (CT) specimens,
according to the procedures of the ASTM E647 standard [44], under load-controlled
conditions. Fig. 19 presents the experimental fatigue crack propagation rates obtained for the
S355 steel, where stress ratio effects on fatigue crack propagation rates are shown. An
increase in fatigue crack propagation rates is clear, when the stress ratio changes from 0 to
any positive stress ratios considered in the experimental program. Also, it is clear that all the
positive stress ratios resulted in similar crack propagation rates. This behaviour is consistent
with a crack closure effect that occurs between Rσ=0.0 and Rσ=0.25. For Rσ=0.0 there is some
crack closure, the applied stress intensity factor range being not fully effective. For Rσ=0.25
and higher, there is no crack closure, the applied stress intensity factor range being fully
effective. Details about the properties evaluation for the S355 steel can be found in reference
[41,42].
Table 1. Monotonic and cyclic elastoplastic properties of the S355 mid steel.
E fu fy K' n'
GPa MPa MPa MPa -
211.60 744.80 422.000 595.85 0.0757
EXPERIMENTAL FATIGUE DATA OF THE S355 MILD STEEL 39

Table 2. Morrow constants of the S355 mid steel.
σ' f b ε' f c
MPa - - -
952.20 -0.0890 0.7371 -0.6640
1.0E0
(Δε/2) = 952.2/E (2N f )-0.0890 + 0.7371 (2N f )-0.6640
ε/2 [-]
1.0E-1
Strain amplitude, DDe/2
1.0E-2
1.0E-3
1.0E-4
1.0E-5
1.0E-6
1.0E+2 1.0E+3 1.0E+4 1.0E+5 1.0E+6 1.0E+7
Reversals to failure, 2N f
Figure 18. Strain‐life curves for the S355 steel, Rε=‐1.
Basis of those results it is possible to get the SWT parameter based on SWT-N model
proposed by Smith, Watson, and Topper [13]. Using this model and assuming that the SWT
parameter corresponds to critical plan for the maximum stress, these experimental results are
used to assess the multiaxial fatigue.
40 EXPERIMENTAL FATIGUE DATA OF THE S355 MILD STEEL

1.0E-2
P-00-01 (R=0.0)
P-00-03 (R=0.0)
P-25-01 (R=0.25)
1.0E-3
P-25-02 (R=0.25)
da/dN [mm/cycle]
P-05-01 (R=0.5)
P-05-02 (R=0.5)
1.0E-4
1.0E-5 R σ =0.0 + R σ =0.25 + R σ =0.5

da/dN =3.1684E-13×D K 2.9094
R 2 =0.7381
1.0E-6
400 500 1000 1500
D K [N.mm -1.5
] 0
a) Experimental data
1.0E-2
R=0.0 da/dN =2.5491E-15×D K 3.7159
R=0.25 R 2 =0.9841
R=0.5
1.0E-3
R=0.0 + R=0.25 + R=0.5
da/dN [mm/cycle]
da/dN =8.2764E-16×D K 3.8907

1.0E-4 R 2 =0.9810
da/dN =2.5893E-15×D K 3.5622

1.0E-5 R 2 =0.9716
da/dN =3.1684E-13×D K 2.9094

R 2 =0.7381
1.0E-6
400 500 1000 1500
D K [N.mm -1.5
] 0
b) Paris correlations for each stress Rσ-ratio
Figure 19. Experimental fatigue crack propagation data of the S355 steel for distinct stress
ratios: experimental results [41,42].
EXPERIMENTAL FATIGUE DATA OF THE S355 MILD STEEL 41

42 EXPERIMENTAL FATIGUE DATA OF THE S355 MILD STEEL

5. NUMERICAL MODELLING
In this work, numerical modelling of tubular bolted connection of a lattice tower for wind
energy converters was done in order to assess fatigue life behaviour. The procedure adopted
for fatigue evaluation is proposed in chapter 3. The series of work performed in this chapter
is given below in detail.
5.1 Numerical Modelling for fatigue assessment
Numerical modelling of steel structures for fatigue assessment is an advanced yet necessary
tool due to the complex geometries, therefore, stress and strain distributions. In order to
estimate the fatigue strength of the bolted joint, the distribution of stress and strain should be
obtained around the bolt hole, and finally, the number of cycles to failure can be calculated
from selected fatigue criteria. To do so, a 3D finite element analysis was performed using
ABAQUS 6.14-2 [45] finite element code in order to obtain the stress and strain distribution
in the members of tubular bolted connection of wind turbine lattice tower.
Numerical modelling of the joint for fatigue assessment have been completed in three main
steps:
i) stiffness analysis of the joint;
ii) application of joint stiffness to general beam model to obtain realistic member
forces;
iii) analysis of the joint under applied member forces.
Analysis of the joint is composed of two main steps:
i) Applying preload to bolts;
ii) External loading of the joint in members.
A special feature of Abaqus/Standard solver was used for preloading by applying a

shortening to the middle section of bolts. A preliminary analysis to define correct preload of
bolts was also performed before analysing the stiffness of the connection.
NUMERICAL MODELLING 43
5.2 Simple model to define bolt pre-loading
Calculation of preload according to EN 1993-1-8 [46] was made and in order to obtain correct
value in analysis result, a simple preloading model was investigated (Figure 20). An
approximate value of strain loading to bolt cross section was applied according to the
following calculation;
𝐴𝑠 561
𝐹𝑃,𝑐𝑑 = 0.7 ∗ 𝑓𝑢𝑏 ∗ = 0.7 ∗ 1000 ∗ = 357 𝑘𝑁
𝛾𝑀7 1.1
𝐹 357000 𝜎 636.364
𝜎= = = 636.364 N/mm2 , 𝜖= = = 0.00303
𝐴 561 𝐸 210000
𝛥𝑙1 = 𝜖 ∗ 𝐿1 = 0.00303 ∗ 94 = 0.285 𝑚𝑚
and increased to 0.358 mm to obtain the correct force value in the bolt section.
Figure 20. Preload validation (356.1 kN).
5.3 Stiffness model
In this chapter, as the first step of the numerical part, a 3D finite element model developed in
order to help calculate stiffness of the joint as shown in Figure 21. As a simplification, only
one half of the KK joint has been modelled. Elastic material behaviour, E=210GPa and
poisson ratio 0.3 were used.
Finite element model is composed of nearly 40.000 quadratic C3D20R and 250.000 linear
C3D8R elements for gusset plates and other parts respectively. Element size varies between
10 mm and 50 mm depending on the location, smaller elements around bolt holes and bigger
elements in other parts. To extract more accurate results, mapped mesh with sufficiently fine
44 NUMERICAL MODELLING
mesh around the hole of the plates has been used in FE analyses. The friction effect between
the surfaces of the bolt head and plates was included in the FE model using Elastic Coulomb
model with friction coefficient of 0.35 which is an average value of what has been used in
some previous studies
Figure 21. Stiffness model.
5.4 Approach to obtain stiffness of the joint
A simple hand calculation was made by finding relation between rotation and force according
to result obtained in stiffness model analysis. Figure 22 represents the stiffness calculation
method where F is applied force, a is distance to centre of bolt group, Δ is displacement of
centre of bolt group, ϕ is rotation of member and l is distance to the axis of chord from centre
of bolt group:
∆
=∅ (5.1)
𝑙
𝐹. 𝑎 = 𝑀 (5.2)
Figure 22. Stiffness calculation.
Following the simple method above, stiffness of the joint was calculated for three different
models using C3D20R, C3D10 and C3D10M with second order accuracy elements for gusset
and C3D8R for other parts. Moment rotation relation of these models is shown in Figure 23.
Result of the model with C3D20R was used and is suggested because of the computational
time required and the stress results.
According to the simple calculation method described above, rotational stiffness of the joint is
found to be 3.73kNm/rad.
2500
2000
Moment [kNm]
1500
1000 C3D10M
C3D20R
500 C3D10
0
0 0,0001 0,0002 0,0003 0,0004 0,0005 0,0006 0,0007 0,0008
Rotation, rad
Figure 23. Elastic joint stiffness.
5.5 Global modelling with beam elements to obtain realistic member forces
5.5.1 A simple model for the verification of connector element
Joints in truss structures are usually considered as pinned for the simplicity. However, in
reality these bolted joints in such a case should be considered as semi-rigid, therefor, they
should be represented by defining rotational stiffness. To this end, “Join+Rotation” type of
connector element was used to represent the semi-rigid joint stiffness. Verification of the
simple model was done by applying 1 kN point load on a beam with length of 100 mm and a
rotation stiffness of 1000000 Nm (Figure 24). Simple calculation of moment-rotation
behaviour is done as follows:
𝑀 =𝑘∙𝜃 (5.3)
By using the values given in Figure 24, and using the Equation 5.3,
10
1000 ∙ 100 = 1000000 ∙ ( )
100
It is possible to prove that “Join+Rotation” connector works correctly for the purpose.
Figure 24. Connector element used for stiffness.
5.5.2 Global model with beam elements
Global model of lattice tower structure is composed of 8 chord members with a length of
54.83 m placed with an angle of 66ᵒ resulting in a lattice tower height of approximately 50 m,
64 braces and 72 horizontal members whose dimensions are given in Table 3.
Global analysis of lattice tower was also carried out in Abaqus 6.14 [45] using beam elements
to have results in a reasonable computational time. A 3D model with beam elements
combined with the calculated joint stiffness in the previous section have been used for global
analysis of the lattice tower in order to obtain member forces (Figure 25). As the nature of this
analysis is elastic only young modulus of 210GPa and poisson ratio of 0.3 were defined in
material properties.
Figure 25. Global model.
Table 3. Dimensions of structural members in lattice tower.
Member length (m)

Level Chords Horizontal Braces
members
Top 0 2.7 0
7 2.5 3.48 3.95
6 2.5 4.26 4.59
5 5 5.81 7.05
4 5 7.37 8.24
3 5 8.93 5.28
2 10 12.0 14.4
1 10 15.15 16.8
Bottom 14.83 19.77 22.78
Boundary conditions of lattice tower applied directly to bottom nodes. Bottom nodes of the
lattice tower restrained in all translational directions while their rotations kept free.
Moreover, loads were applied through a reference point at the centre of top octagon.
Global model was analysed under fatigue load conditions obtained in previous studies [47].
Damage equivalent fatigue loads used in the analysis are shown in Table 4. In order to show
the effect of semi-rigid connection modelling a comparison was made between the results for
pinned, semi-rigid and rigid connections. According to the modelling procedure explained
above member forces shown in Table 5 obtained in the global analysis (Figure 26).
Table 4. Damage equivalent fatigue loads applied in global beam model.
ΔFx (kN) ΔMx (kNm) ΔMy (kNm) ΔMz (kNm)

203 781 4065 3950
Table 5. Member forces obtained in global analysis.
Member Pinned Semi-rigid Rigid

name
Fx (kN) Fy (kN) Fx (kN) Fy (kN) Mz (kNm) Fx (kN) Fy (kN) Mz (kNm)
-
Horizontal-1 -231.02 0 13.62 0.04 -210 9.93 16.4
227.117
Brace-1 231.02 215.33 319.088 1.38 0.547 307.274 178.15 5.7
-
Brace-2 -167.37 207.7 3.9 0.487 -302.74 175.79 -5.57
315.981
Horizontal-2 140.615 0 218.185 -14.38 0.084 300.59 9.06 -14.66
Figure 26. Max. and min. axial forces in members.
5.6 Application of Obtained Member Forces to Joint Model
5.6.1 Geometric properties of the model
Abaqus 6.14 [45] model of tubular bolted connection of the lattice tower under investigation
is given in Figure 27. Numerical model is composed of chord, horizontal and diagonal
members which are connected by gusset and filler plates. Cross-section and members length
used in the analysis is given in Table 6.
Table 6. Cross-section properties of members
Member Cross-section Length

Chords CHS 559 x 32 mm 6000 mm
Braces CHS 406.4 x 32 mm 5000 mm
Horizontal bars CHS 406.4 x 32 mm 5000 mm
(a)
(b)
Figure 27. 3D and cross-section views of the bolted joint.
5.6.2 Material, element type and mesh
Most materials that exhibit ductile behaviour (large inelastic strains) yield at stress levels that
are orders of magnitude less than the elastic modulus of the material, which implies that the
relevant stress and strain measures are “true” stress and logarithmic strain. Material data for
all of these models should, therefore, be given in these measures. Conversion of nominal
stress-strain data is performed as follows:
𝑝𝑙 𝜎𝑡𝑟𝑢𝑒
𝜀𝑙𝑛 = ln(1 + 𝜀𝑛𝑜𝑚 ) − (5.4)
𝐸
𝜎𝑡𝑟𝑢𝑒 = 𝜎𝑛𝑜𝑚 (1 + 𝜀𝑛𝑜𝑚 ) (5.5)
The elastoplastic monotonic behaviour of S355 steel grade used in this study is shown in
Figure 28 below. This material data were taken from a previous study performed by De Jesus
et al. [41,42]. Bolts were assumed to have a linear elastic material relationship with a Poisson
ratio equal to 0.3 and young modulus of 210GPa. As the bolt and its washer have
approximately the same material properties, the geometrical model of the washer was added
to the bolt head in order to minimize the interaction use (with ignoring contact definition
between the bolt head and the washer). This simplification considerably reduces computation
processing time with very good approximation.
Isotropic hardening is used for the material that allows yield surface to change size uniformly
in all directions such that the yield stress increase (or decrease) in all stress directions as
plastic straining occurs. Fatigue data for the S355 steel used in this study, are presented in the
Chapter 4. Theses cyclic properties of the S355 steel were used for fatigue assessment of the
joint in study.
800
700
600
Stress [MPa]
500
400
300
200
100
0
0 0,02 0,04 0,06 0,08 0,1 0,12
Strain
Figure 28. Monotonic behaviour of the S355 steel used in this study.
A mesh convergence study was carried out on a double lap joint representing two horizontal
members and gusset plate connection using same thickness and bolt diameter in order to
obtain an optimum solution between result accuracy and computational time. Mesh
convergence criteria was considered to be 5 % difference from previous analysis in maximum
stress under preloading of bolt.
Figures 29 and 30, and Table 7 show variation of number of elements around bolt holes and
through thickness used in the convergence study and the results respectively. As it can be seen
from Table 7, using 4 elements through thickness with variation of (6, 5, 8) elements on edges
a, b and c satisfy the convergence criteria. Moreover, minimum element size is 2.9 mm in this
preference.
Figure 29. Number of elements used around bolt holes.
Table 7. Analyses performed for mesh convergence study
Analysis Through a b c Maximum Difference

number thickness stress (%)
1 3 6 5 8 325.5 -
2 4 6 5 8 350.7 7.75
3 5 6 5 8 367.8 4.8
4 6 6 5 8 384.47 3.5
5 4 4 3 6 279.3 -
6 4 4 4 6 311.2 11.4
2 4 6 5 8 350.7 12.6
7 4 6 5 10 340.3 3
Figure 30. Number of elements used around bolt holes and stress distribution after preloading.
Two different meshing approaches were used in this study namely top-down and bottom-up
for chord, braces, horizontal members and gusset plates respectively due to irregular shape of
gusset plate. Structured mesh was applied to regions around bolt holes in order to obtain a
well distributed stress, therefor better results. All members in the joint consist of
approximately 915.000 C3D8R, three dimensional solid elements with reduced integration
points and hourglass control option. Also, using 4 elements through thickness in gusset plates,
chord, braces and horizontal members is a good enough attempt to avoid hourglass effect.
Some members and their mesh structures are also shown in Figure 31.
Figure 31. Mesh structure of some members.
5.6.3 Interaction definitions
Penalty friction formulation with an isotropic friction coefficient of 0.35 as tangential

behaviour and hard contact which also allows separation after contact for normal behaviour
were used. Surface-to-surface contact type with finite sliding with automatic surface
smoothing option was used for contact definitions where adjustment of slave surfaces to
remove overclosure option also chosen for members initially in contact.
Bolts were always chosen as master surfaces where members with more mesh density were
chosen as slave surfaces. In order to help decrease computational time filler plates tied to
braces, chords and horizontal members in a manner with minimally affecting the regions
connected by bolts.
Table 8. Comparison between penalty and augmented Lagrange formulations
Augmented Lagrange Penalty

Stiffness Penetration tolerance Max. stress Stiffness Max. stress
default default 245.2 default 220.5
100 default 230.4 100 561.4
10 default 317.2 10 476.5
1 default - 1 296.4
default 1 245.2 0.1 -
default 0.1 245.2 - -
default 0.01 245.2 - -
A parametric study was also performed to decide between penalty and augmented Lagrange
contact formulations taking into account maximum stress and analysis time. As it can be seen
in Table 8, the stiffness of the contact significantly affects the maximum stress occurring in a
contact area and keeping contact stiffness same and varying the penetration tolerance in
augmented Lagrange formulation shows that this variable has no effect on the maximum
stress.
Moreover, increasing the contact stiffness also increased the computational time at an
exponential rate and lowering stiffness resulted in not converging solutions. Dashed cells in
the Table 8 indicate that analysis did not converge. Judging by the parametric study
performed on contact formulations above it was decided to use penalty contact formulation
with default values.
5.6.4 Boundary conditions
In loading step all horizontal members and braces restrained in out of plane direction and left
free to move in other directions (ux=0, uy=uz≠0) while bottom and top cross sections of chord
were restrained in all directions (ux=uy=uz=0) by means of coupling all the nodes on end cross
sections of members to reference points.
5.7 Numerical results
The proposed procedure to multiaxial fatigue life estimation of steel tubular bolted
connections applied in global structural models with beam elements using local approaches is
presented in Chapter 3.
Table 9 shows stress, strain and SWT parameter results obtained at the end of external loading.
As it can be seen from the table maximum SWT resultant occurs in Horizontal-8 although
resultant SWT parameters have almost no difference from one another. This is due to the fact
that preloading of bolts has significant effect compared to external loading which resulted
from fatigue equivalent loads (see Figure 32).
Figure 33 and Fig 34 also show von misses and maximum principal stress distributions
respectively.
Table 9. Maximum stress (in MPa), strains and SWT parameters in members.
S11 S22 S33 E11 E22 E33 εa.σmax Part

413,8270 43,5495 166,1310 0,0017 0,0006 0,0001 0,3492 Horizontal-1
415,7370 76,2876 140,5830 0,0017 0,0004 0,0001 0,3476 Horizontal-2
412,671 41,282 157,082 0,00169 0,000617 0,000102 0,3486 Horizontal-3
413,782 42,12 164,024 0,001686 0,000625 0,00013 0,3487 Horizontal-4
415,368 49,9184 164,558 0,00168 0,000606 0,000127 0,3490 Horizontal-5
413,91 42,3622 165,166 0,001687 0,000637 0,000144 0,3491 Horizontal-6
413,145 42,9085 160,734 0,001693 0,000627 0,000123 0,3497 Horizontal-7
414,967 42,203 166,237 0,001696 0,00064 0,000146 0,3520 Horizontal-8
246,7700 106,3200 34,6455 0,0010 0,0001 0,0003 0,1201 Gusset-1
104,2580 15,3508 1,7635 0,0005 0,0001 0,0002 0,025017 Gusset-2
0
-50
Normal stress, N/mm2 -100
-150
-200
-250
-300
-350
-400
-450
0 10 20 30 40 50 60 70
Distance, mm
(a)
(b)
Figure 32. Normal stress due to bolt preloading; (a) by distance, (b) by contour.
Figure 33. Von-misses stress distribution due to external loading.
Figure 34. Maximum principal stress location.
Figure 35 shows SWT resultant variation according to bolt force during preloading and
external loading. Application of external loads resulted in hardly any change in bolt force.
Therefore, preload of bolts is considered to be the governing factor for fatigue life estimation
of tubular bolted connection under investigation as no change was observed in SWT resultant
during external loading.
Figure 36 shows SWT parameter-fatigue life variation of unnotched specimen of S355 mild
steel. According to the multiaxial fatigue criterion, which was used in this study, namely
Smith-Watson-Topper criterion [13], the resultant parameter was calculated as 0.352 which
gives the fatigue life Nf approximately 815.000 cycles.
400000
350000
300000
250000
Bolt load [kN]
200000
150000
100000
50000
0
0 0,1 0,2 0,3 0,4 0,5
SWT Resultant (εa. σmax)
Figure 35. SWT resultant variation to bolt load.
100
Reference fatigue loading
5K fatigue loading
10
εe.σmax
0,1
1,E+00 1,E+01 1,E+02 1,E+03 1,E+04 1,E+05 1,E+06 1,E+07 1,E+08
Nf, cycles
Figure 36. SWT resultant fatigue life curve for the S355 steel unnotched specimen.
Fatigue life behaviour of the tubular bolted connection was also further investigated under up
to five times the reference equivalent fatigue loads (5K). Figure 37 shows variation of
maximum principal stresses at minimum fatigue life location on Horizantal-8 member under
5K loads. Initial stress increase represents preloading stage of the analysis and the rest shows
external loading. It is important to note that even though 5K loads were applied in this case,
the change in local stress variation was observed to be around 3% which can be considered
ineffective for such amount of increase in loading. It can then clearly be concluded from the
figure that local stresses in any direction did not change up to 5K external loading.
450
400
350
Local stress, N/mm2
S-s11
300 S-s33
250 S-s22
200
150
100
50
0
0 2 4 6 8 10 12 14
Remote stress, N/mm2
Figure 37. Remote stress-local stress (5K) variation at minimum fatigue life location.
Figure 38 shows SWT parameter variation from preloading until the end of external loading in
time. It should be considered that preloading ends at the end of one second and external
loading starts at this point. Addition to Figure 37, Figure 38 also indicates very little effect of
5K external loading on SWT parameter, therefore, little or no change in fatigue life can be
expected.
However, it is important to note that 3% increase in the SWT parameter from K to 5K loading
resulted in a fatigue life of 630000 cycles which corresponds to a decrease of 23% in fatigue
life compared to 815000 cycles of Nf in K loading.
0,4
0,35
Horizontal-1
0,3
Horizontal-2
0,25
Horizontal-3
SWT
0,2 Horizontal-4
Horizontal-5
0,15
Horizontal-6
0,1
Horizontal-7
0,05 Horizontal-8
0
0 0,5 1 1,5 2 2,5
Time, s
Figure 38. SWT parameter variation.
Figure 39 shows stress gradient of cross-section where the minimum fatigue life occurs. It
also shows the importance of relation between stress concentration around bolt holes and
remote stress. Furthermore, Figure 40 and Figure 41 show stress gradient and stress
integration respectively around the bolt hole with the finest mesh. This curves are important in
terms of stress concentration factor calculations which can easily be defined and the ratio
between nominal and maximum stress.
50
-50
Stress, N/mm2
-100
-150 Preload
External loading
-200
-250
0 100 200 300 400 500 600 700 800 900 1000
True distance, mm
Figure 39. Shows stress gradient around bolt hole.
50
0
Preload
External loading
Stress, N/mm2
-50
-100
-150
-200
-250
0 10 20 30 40 50 60 70 80
True distance, mm
Figure 40. Shows stress gradient around bolt hole.
14000
12000
10000
AKt, mm2
8000
6000
4000
Preload
2000 External loading
0
0 20 40 60 80 100
True distance, mm
Figure 41. Integration of stress around bolt hole.
FEA results (path operations and integration to determine the area under the stress gradient
curve) provides an accurate method of determining the nominal stress (σnom).
𝐴𝐾𝑡 7279,95 𝑁
𝜎𝑛𝑜𝑚 = = = 95,328
𝐷𝑖𝑠𝑡𝑎𝑛𝑐𝑒 77,697 𝑚𝑚2
𝑁
𝑤ℎ𝑒𝑟𝑒 𝜎𝑚𝑎𝑥 = 161,04 (𝑃𝑟𝑒𝑙𝑜𝑎𝑑𝑖𝑛𝑔)
𝑚𝑚2
𝐴𝐾𝑡 11505,1 𝑁
𝜎𝑛𝑜𝑚 = = = 148,078
𝐷𝑖𝑠𝑡𝑎𝑛𝑐𝑒 77,697 𝑚𝑚2
𝑁
𝑤ℎ𝑒𝑟𝑒 𝜎𝑚𝑎𝑥 = 227,45 (𝐸𝑥𝑡𝑒𝑟𝑛𝑎𝑙)
𝑚𝑚2
161,04 227,45
𝐾𝑡,𝑃𝑟𝑒𝑙𝑜𝑎𝑑 = = 1,689 𝑎𝑛𝑑 𝐾𝑡,𝐸𝑥𝑡𝑒𝑟𝑛𝑎𝑙 = = 1,536
95,328 148,078
Figure 42 shows gap size change between bolt and gusset plate hole. It can be seen from the
figure that fatigue loads are not enough to cause a slippage greater than the size of the gap
which prevents mechanical failure of gusset plate.
1400
1200
1000
Force, kN
800
600
400
200
0
0 0,1 0,2 0,3 0,4 0,5 0,6
Gap, mm
Figure 42. Gap size change between bolt and hole.
6. CONCLUSIONS AND FUTURE WORK
The purpose of this study was to investigate the fatigue life behaviour of tubular bolted
connection of a newly proposed lattice tower using a multiaxial fatigue criteria. According to
the work performed below conclusions can be drawn:
a) Rotational stiffness of the connection around the axis perpendicular to in-plane is

found to be 3.6 kNm/rad;
b) Global model was analysed for pinned, semi-rigid and rigid connection cases and the
axial forces difference in members between pinned and semi-rigid cases is found to be
maximum up to 88 %;
c) Performing a mesh convergence study for preloading proved its importance as it has
direct effect on fatigue life calculations;
d) Applied fatigue loads are not enough to cause important slippage of brace members on
gusset plates which prevents mechanical failure of gusset plates as no interaction
occurs between gusset plate hole and bolt. This stick regime suggest that the most
possible fatigue failure location is under bolts in horizontal members and it should
occur in form of wear failure which can be said to have longer fatigue life compared to
mechanical failure,
e) No plastic strain observed due to preloading which causes the maximum stress,
f) In fatigue life calculations maximum resultant of SWT parameter was calculated for
each member;
g) In every member, normal stress due to preloading was always the highest among other
principal stresses;
h) All members were also loaded up to 5 times the reference equivalent fatigue loads to
investigate further the fatigue life of members;
i) Increasing loads 5 times showed approximately 3% difference on normal stress but a

23 % decrease in fatigue life where it changed from 815000 cycles to 630000 cycles;
j) Stress concentration factors around bolt holes were calculated in the location with the
minimum fatigue life as 1.689 and 1.536 for preloading and external loading
respectively.
CONCLUSIONS AND FUTURE WORK 65

Some suggestion can also be made in order to improve the fatigue life calculations of tubular
bolted connection under investigation such as: to perform stiffness calculation analysis for
out-of-plane, improving rotational stiffness calculation method and including principal stress
and strains in other directions then only normal direction in SWT parameter calculations
which only considers the maximum principal stresses and strains. The use of the SWT
parameter as a multiaxial damage criterion proved to be efficient in getting of the fatigue life
of the steel half-pipe bolted connection.
66 CONCLUSIONS AND FUTURE WORK

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FINITE ELEMENT MODELLING OF TUBULAR BOLTED CONNECTION OF A

Thesis · February 2016

The user has requested enhancement of the downloaded file.

Supervisors: Professor Carlos Rebelo

Thesis Submitted in partial fulfillment of requirements for the degree of Master of

Author: Ferhan Öztürk

Supervisors: Professor Carlos Rebelo

University: University of Coimbra

University: University of Coimbra

Sustainable Constructions under natural hazards and catastrophic events

Sustainable Constructions under natural hazards and catastrophic events

Sustainable Constructions under natural hazards and catastrophic events

TABLE OF CONTENTS vii

Sustainable Constructions under natural hazards and catastrophic events

2.1.2 Local approaches........................................................................................................20

viii TABLE OF CONTENTS

Sustainable Constructions under natural hazards and catastrophic events

Sustainable Constructions under natural hazards and catastrophic events

Figure 27. 3D and cross-section views of the bolted joint. .................................................... 48

Sustainable Constructions under natural hazards and catastrophic events

TABLE INDEX xiii

Sustainable Constructions under natural hazards and catastrophic events

Sustainable Constructions under natural hazards and catastrophic events

Sustainable Constructions under natural hazards and catastrophic events

Sustainable Constructions under natural hazards and catastrophic events

1.3 Organisation of the Thesis

The introduction is followed by a literature review on fatigue that is composed of the

1.4 Towers Used for Wind Energy Converters

Sustainable Constructions under natural hazards and catastrophic events

1.4.1 Type of Towers for Wind Energy Converters

1.4.1.1 Concrete Towers

Sustainable Constructions under natural hazards and catastrophic events

1.4.1.2 Welded Steel Shell Towers

Sustainable Constructions under natural hazards and catastrophic events

Figure 2. Steel shell tower in two sections and ring flange.

Sustainable Constructions under natural hazards and catastrophic events

Figure 3. Transportation of steel tubular tower segments.

1.4.1.3 Concrete/Steel Hybrid Tower

Figure 4. Concrete-steel hybrid tower.

1.4.1.4 Lattice Tower

Sustainable Constructions under natural hazards and catastrophic events

Figure 5. Steel lattice tower.

Sustainable Constructions under natural hazards and catastrophic events

1.4.1.5 Hybrid Lattice-Tubular Towers

Figure 6. Hybrid lattice-tubular tower.

Sustainable Constructions under natural hazards and catastrophic events

Sustainable Constructions under natural hazards and catastrophic events

Sustainable Constructions under natural hazards and catastrophic events

2. State of the Art in Fatigue

2.1 History of Fatigue

STATE OF THE ART IN FATIGUE 11

Sustainable Constructions under natural hazards and catastrophic events

In 1945, Miner formulated a linear cumulative fatigue damage criterion suggested by

12 STATE OF THE ART IN FATIGUE

Sustainable Constructions under natural hazards and catastrophic events

2.2 Nature of Fatigue

STATE OF THE ART IN FATIGUE 13

Sustainable Constructions under natural hazards and catastrophic events

Figure 8. Fatigue life stages [6].

2.3 Factors Influencing Fatigue Life

b) Manufacturing process: Fatigue properties are better in the direction of forging,

14 STATE OF THE ART IN FATIGUE

Sustainable Constructions under natural hazards and catastrophic events